■'■■••••fHWj 


|H 




■ 


ft 

JCr 








LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





DDDDSbfiTSEH 











• « 







O 

























Ik 

./ '.^i^*- U ^ •; 




♦ ^ ^.^. ♦ 











.0* .••!'. O^ 




V c-r .V 






" o 



t i 
















.VJ 




S *| o- 



* f 



V n * * ® - 







o 

;r * 






*TS - 




7, ' ' A^ 



.0' 



sK 



•^t. 






NOTES IN HISTORY. 



ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 



OF 



MODERN EUROPEAN NATIONS. 



BY y- 

GEORGE WASHINGTON WARD, Ph. D., 

Pi-ofessor of History in the Western Maryland College, 



BALTIMORE : 

JOHN MURPHY COMPANY. 

I 900. 



,^0 COPIES «>^CE.V BO. 



y^f^ist&t of Copyrt'ghtSr" 



60101 



Copyright, 1900, by Gkorge W. Ward. 



Sec J. ^ J oOPV, 



ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 

OF 

MODERN EUROPEAN NATIONS. 



Part I.-THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES 
INVADE THE EMPIRE. 



CHAPTER 1.— DECLINE OF THE KOMAN 

EMPIRE. 

1. Introductory. — Perhaps no better illustration of 
the law that cessation of progress is decline can be found 
than the Roman Empire. From the day that Rome 
began the subjugation of the Samnites and the acquisition 
of territory by conquest, Roman legions were almost 
continuously adding new lands, till in the time of 
Pladrian (117-138 A. D.) the boundaries of the Roman 
Empire extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the 
Euphrates (over 3,000 miles), and from Britain (Wall 
of Antoninus,) to the deserts of Africa (nearly 2,000 
miles). (Tacitus, Annales 1, 2. Gibbous, end Ch. I.) 

2. Greatest Extent of the Empire. — With the 
change from republic to empire, Rome changed also her 
policy. Augustus advised the Romans to cease from 

3 



4 THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 

conquest and devote themselves to the peaceful govern- 
ment of their world empire. Britain was the only 
province added during the first century. Then in the 
reign of Trajan (98-117 A. D.) Dacia (where?) was 
added. (Column of Trajan.) But with the conquest of 
the Parthians in the East by the same emperor, the 
boundaries of the empire reached their utmost limit. 
(Gibbon, Ch. II.) 

3. First Loss of Territory. — The first act of 
Trajan's successor (Hadrian 117-138 A. D.) was to 
restore the independence of the Parthians. It was then 
a new thing for Rome to lose territory to her enemies ; 
soon this became her continual and ever-increasing neces- 
sity. Thus Rome reached her climax under the Antonines. 
With the accession of Com modus, decline goes on apace. 
Moral depravity complete. (Gibbon, Ch. IV. Capes's 
The Age of the Antonines.) 

4. What was the Roman Empire. — An empire is, 
in theory, a confederation of kingdoms more or less inde- 
pendent, according as they are powerful enough to defy 
the empire or weak enough to be held by it in complete 
subjugation. This definition the world learned from 
Rome. Alexander might have taught the lesson 300 
years earlier but what would have become an empire 
died in infancy at the death of its creator, no one being 
found powerful enough to hold the member-kingdoms in 
even nominal subjection. (Bryce's Holy Roman Empire^ 
Chs. I, II.) 



THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 5 

5. Member-Kingdoms of Rome. — Among the king- 
doms (provinces) over which the Roman Empire exer- 
cised authority — sometimes very feeble, sometimes almost 
complete — may be mentioned Spain, France (Gaul), Eng- 
land (Britain), Austria-Hungary as far as the Danube, 
Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Persia, Egypt, 
Tunis, Tripoli, Algeria, and Morocco. Germany was 
never conquered by the Roman arms or Roman law, 
and but imperfectly subjected to the Roman Church. 
(Mommsen's The Provinces, c&c., Emerton's Jntrodudion 
to the Study of the Middle Ages, Ch. I.) 



CHAPTER II. -APPEARANCE OF THE 

TEUTONS. 

1. The Teutones and the Cimbri, B. C. 102, 
101.— See '^Rome,'' Chapter XIX, Sec. 7. 

2. C^SAR AND THE TEUTONS. — About half a cen- 
tury after Marius had crushed the Teutones and Cimbri, 
who had probably wandered from the northern shores of 
Germany, the German chief so celebrated in Caesar's 
writings crossed the Rhine into Gaul. Ariovistus had 
been invited over by the Sequani to aid them against the 
^dui. Having performed this service well, Ariovistus 
declined to leave his new friends, and the Sequani in 
terror applied to Csesar. Ariovistus was overthrown 
and soon died of a wound, but Caesar was never able to 
gain a footing on the German side of the Rhine. Ger- 
mans from this time greatly influenced by Rome. Ger- 
man Soldiers Enlist in the Roman Armies. 



b THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 

3. The Battle of Teutoburg Forest, 9 A. D. — 
Rome liacl repelled with ease the infrequent invasions 
made by the restless tribes from the unknown forests 
beyond the Rhine and the Danube. At last a systematic 
attempt was to be made to conquer Germany. It was 
Rome's turn to invade. Her territory had never before 
been invaded by any people that did not sooner or later 
pay for its insolence by submission to her. Augustus 
sent Tiberius to subdue the Germans. The attempt had 
nearly succeeded when Tiberius died. Then arose the 
great German leader, Hermann, who once more united 
the quarreling tribes, led the Roman general, Varus, 
into an ambush in the Teutoburg Forest (wdiere?), 
destroyed his three legions almost to a man, and saved 
the German peoples forever from Roman domination. 
(Creasy, ch. V.) 

4. Invasions under Germanicus, 14-16 A. D. — 
The Romans soon raised other legions, and in 14 A. D. 
Germanicus was sent to push the invasion. The next 
year, Thusnelda, wife of Hermann, was captured and 
sent a prisoner to Rome. Again the young chief 
sought the captors of his wife in Teutoburg Forest, but 
this time Hermann was defeated. Germanicus lost so 
heavily in the two victories which he gained the next 
year that he was compelled to leave Germany. End of 
Roman invasion. Romans steadily gain influence and 
some territory east of the Rhine. 

5. Germans become Acquainted with Rome. — 
Communication between the Romans and the Teutons 



THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 7 

coDstantly increased, especially by way of the numerous 
military stations and trading posts established by the 
Romans on the frontier. Many flourishinpj German 
towns of the present day owe their origin to such Roman 
establishments. Number of Germans in the Roman 
armies steadily increased. (Caesar's Commentaries). 

6. The Marcomanni return the Compliment, 
166-180 A. D. — It was now the turn of the Germans to 
invade. During the reign of Marcus Aurelius the pow- 
erful Marcomanni made war on the Empire for thirteen 
years. It was during his camp life in these wars that 
Marcus Aurelius wrote his immortal " Meditations.'^ 
(" Rome," Chap. XXIV., 7.) He died before the frontier 
was secured, and his worthless son, Com modus, bought 
off the Germans with tribute. With this act bes^ins the 
conflict which ends in the territorial supremacy of the 
barbarians — the barbarian conquest of Roman territoj^y^ 
the institutional supremacy of Rome. (Gibbon, Ch. III.) 



CHAPTER HI.— THE GERMANS. 

1. The ^'Germania." — We are introduced to the 
Germans in their native forests by Csesar. About 1 50 years 
later Tacitus wrote his " Treatise on the Situation, Man- 
ners, and Inhabitants of Germany.'^ (Read his treatise : 
Harper's Tacitus, II, 286. 25 pp). In spite of the 
severe criticisms of this work, the Germauia, with a few 
reasonable qualifications, must be accepted as a correct 



8 THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 

picture of German life and institutions at the end of the 
first century of our era. 

2. Germany. — Germany is pretty nearly a natural 
division. With the ocean on the north, the Rhine on the 
west, the Alps and Danube on the south, it was only in 
the east that Germany could gain or lose very much 
territory. Rome proved unable to break these natural 
barriers behind which the Germans have held their posi- 
tion from the earliest times. Germany's protracted and 
desperate eifort to do so ended in complete failure — and 
worse : the successful unification of both Germany and 
Italy was delayed more than 600 years, having been 
accomplished only one generation ago. (Chap. XX, 6.) 

3. The Germans. — (a) The name (from Weh?- manriy 
warrior (?), first adopted by a small tribe to terrify its 
enemies, afterwards spread to the whole race {Germania, 
2). Germans rarely intermarried with any other races, 
hence their distinct type: "eyes stern and blue, ruddy 
hair; large bodies, powerful in sudden exertions, but 
impatient of toil and labor, least of all capable of sustain- 
ing thirst and heat. (Ch. IV.) (b) Elected a king by 
raising him on a shield. Women had great influence. 
Important matters settled in meeting of whole com- 
munity. All business done under arras. Leader dis- 
graced if surpassed in valor. (c) Pure family life ; 
" almost singly among the barbarians, they content them- 
selves with one wife." " The wife does not bring a 
dowry to her husband, but receives one from him." 
*^ Men and women are alike unacquainted with clandestine 



THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. » 

correspondence." ^^Adultery is extremely rare ; its pun- 
ishment is instant.'^ " Late marriages insisted upon — 
scandalous to marry before age of twenty." (Caesar's 
Gallic Wars,Yl, 21.) (f/) No distinction between free 
and slave children. " They lie together amidst the 
same cattle, upon the same ground, till age separates, and 
valor marks out the free born." " As soon as they rise 
from sleep, which they usually protract till late in the 
day, they bathe, usually in warm water, as cold weather 
chiefly prevails there. After bathing they take their 
meal, each on a distinct seat, and at a separate table. 
Then they proceed, armed, to business; and not less 
frequently to convivial parties, in which it is no disgrace 
to pass days and nights, without intermission, in drink- 
ing. The frequent quarrels that arise among them when 
intoxicated, seldom terminate in abusive language, but 
more frequently in blood." (e) ''Their funerals are 
without parade. The only circumstance to which they 
attend is to burn the bodies of eminent persons with some 
particular kind of wood. The arms of the deceased, and 
sometimes his horse, are given to the flames. The tomb 
is a mound of turf." (/) Among the Catti valor is so 
much admired that they do not shave the beard or trim 
the hair till they have proved their manhood by slaying an 
enemy in battle Some wear an iron ring or chain till 
they merit liberty by slaying an enemy, {g) Tacitus 
scouts the stories current among the Germans that two of 
their tribes, the Hellusii and the Oxionse, had "human 
faces, with the bodies and limbs of wild beasts," and 
many other like fables. (Emerton, Ch. II. Gibbon, 
Ch. IX.) 



10 THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 

CHAPTER IV.-FKOM COMMODUS TO THE 
GREAT MIGRATIONS. 

1. Power of the Army.— From the accession of 
the dissolute Commodiis, the power of the army rapidly 
increased. The army had been the foundation of the 
empire; it was rapidly becoming the empire itself. 
Upon the assassination of Commodus the Praetorians 
offer the empire for sale. From this time the army 
becomes the real power, the Emperor only the instrument. 
Septimus Severus (193 A. D.) led the army on the 
frontiers, leaving the Prefect of the Praetorians to rule in 
Rome. The chief, supported by the legions, was nominal 
emperor— title, Imperator. (Gibbon, Ch. V., VL, VII.) 

2. Renewed Invasions.— About fifty years later 
the Germans were again pressing into the Empire in 
considerable numbers, the Franks in Gaul, the Goths 
(now first known to the Romans) on the Danube, and 
the Alamanni in Italy itself. They were driven back 
now, but under Aurelian (270-275 A. D.) Rome was 
stripped of Dacia, and the Teutons pushed as far south 
as the Metarus. Claudius Gothicus. (Gibbon, Ch. 

yiiL, X., XI.) 

3. Division of the Empire. — With the accession 
of Diocletian (284 A. D.), the old republican offices lose 
all significance and the Empire is modeled after the 
oriental despotism. Now begins the separation between 
Rome and the East, issuing in the discredit of the pagan 
religions, the establishment of a new religion and Empire 



THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 11 

at Constantinople, and the complete subjection of Rome 
to the Praetorians. (Gibbon, XII.) 

4. Fall of Eome. — Henceforth the Emperor in the 
West is a pu{)})et ; the general of the army rules Italy. 
If Rome fell this was her fall. The East had ever been 
the center of civilization ; when Rome ceased to be the 
military center of the world, therefore, " her fall was 
deep and rapid. She ceased to be mistress even of the 
West, and sank, politically at least, into the rank of a 
mere provincial city." (Merivale.) (Gibbon, Ch. XIV., 
XVII., XVIII., XIX.) 

5. Decline of Military Power. — The seat of 
Empire had been changed because Constantinople had 
become not only the center of civilization but was also 
the natural defence of the Empire against the Persians or 
the Goths. Under this false notion of security Rome 
gave herself up to luxury and ease. From this time 
the army was composed chiefly of barbarians. Rome 
henceforth supported by barbarians under Roman institu- 
tions and forms against barbarians under Teutonic insti- 
tutions and forms. Separation of East and West complete 
by 364 A. D. — Valentinian I. Emperor in the West, 
Valens in the East. The Romans with difficulty hold 
in check the Germans from the north. (Gibbon, XXII., 
XXIII., XXIV., XXV.) 

6. The Papacy. — On the ruins of the old imperial 
power the church rapidly built up the papacy. Rome 
rarely saw the emperor ; she was in daily contact with 



12 THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 

the Bishop (called Pope from about 400 A. D.) Gibbon, 
XV, XYL,XX.,XXI.) 



CHAPTEK V,— THE GREAT MIGRATIONS, 

375 A. r>. 

1. Causes.— (a) HuDger. It has been estimated that 
people in the pastoral stage require for subsistence an 
average of 50,000 acres per individual. But whether 
from necessity or not, the Teutons of the fourth century 
appear to have been a restless, roving, warlike people. 
With such habits, a rapidly increasing population, and 
scant food supply from crops, it may be that the bounti- 
fully fed empire became an attraction too strong to be 
resisted. (6) Migratory Wave. Perhaps it would be 
difficult to say what sets in motion the first tribe ; but 
after that, each tribe driven out in turn drives out 
another. This wavelike motion will probably continue 
till a tribe either finds unoccupied land or a weaker tribe 
which may be subjugated and its lands appropriated. 
('^ Eastern Civilizations and Greece,'' Chap. VIII., 3-5.) 
(c) Plunder. The Goths had perhaps learned enough of 
the empire to understand and crave its wealth. Among 
the strongest incentives to war in ancient times was 
plunder. As compared with the poverty-stricken tribes 
of the Russian and German plains, the old and wealthy 
civilization of the empire offered a prize not to be neglected. 

2. Situation of the Barbarians in the Fourth 
Century.— (Consult map, pp. 24, 25, Thatcher and 



THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 13 

Schwill.) The Alani (probably Teutonic) lay on the 
Black Sea, the East Goths came next in southwestern 
Russia, then the West Goths in the Danube bow — eastern 
Hungary — with the Vandals to the northwest, i. e., in 
southern Germany. Far to the east and just entering 
Europe lay the Huns. 

3. The Huns. — A Mongolian people whose origin is 
not certainly known. They appear to have crossed Asia 
all the way from China. (Cf. DeQuincey's Revolt of the 
Tartai's,) They are described as the most repulsive 
creatures of that dark and repulsive age. Small of 
stature, hideously ugly — even to deformity — living on 
horse flesh (whether killed or found dead mattered not), 
spending nearly all their time on horse-back, and stop- 
ping at no cruelty in war, the Huns might well be called 
by the priests of a little later time ^' the Scourge of 
God.'^ (Gibbon, Ch. XXVI. Ammianus Marcellinus.) 

4. The West Goths Attacked by the Huns. — 
For more than a century the restless barbarians north 
of the Danube had been making forays into the eastern 
empire. During this long time it seems that they must 
have discovered not only the wealth of the plunder 
offered by the empire, but also its inherent weakness. 

The fall of the Roman Empire may justly be dated 
from the reign of Valens '' (364-378 A. D.). It was in 
this reign that the storm so long gathering on the 
northern horizon burst in all its destructive fury upon 
the institutions and civilization of the empire. The 
Huns crossing the Volga, conquered the Alani, and all 



a 



14 THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 

together fell upon the East Goths who, more in terror 
than in attack, burst into the territory of the West 
Goths. These, on account of the pressure from the 
north, could only move in one direction— into the 
empire. 

5. Crossing the Danube, 376 A. D.— The Goths 
sent an embassy to Valens begging for land. It was 
granted on the hard conditions that the barbarians (1) 
give up their arms, and (2) give up their children to be 
held as hostages in Asia Minor and educated by the 
Romans. (Gibbon, III, 31.) The asking was a mere 
form, the granting a necessity. Though the Danube was 
a mile wide and the crossing effected with great difficulty, 
probably not less than a million barbarians— women, 
children, and slaves included— entered the empire at this 
time. 

6. Battle of Adrianople, 378 A. D.— The condi- 
tions were soon violated. Roman officers meddling and 
Gothic wariors resenting. Soon a general uprising. At 
Adrianople (where ?) the Goths were met by Valens. 
The Goths were victorous. Valens was slain, and the 
Empire was henceforth little more than a name. The 
so-called Emperor, Theodosius L, made peace with the 
Goths and absolute destruction was postponed indefinitely. 



THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 15 

CHAPTER VI.— THE GOTHS. 

1. Who Were the Goths? — Teutonic — origiDally 
from Scandinavia (?) First mentioned in history about 
the time of Alexander the Great. Tacitus knew them as 
the Gothones (Germania, ch. 43,) living not far from the 
Baltic Sea. (Not the Gothoni, a non-Germanic people 
living farther south.) When or how they reached the 
shores of the Black Sea where they next appear over two 
centuries later is not known. 

2. Early History of the Goths. — Early in the 
third century they invaded Dacia (where?) then a 
Roman province. From that time the Empire was 
never secure. The Goths soon built a fleet (500 vessels?) 
with which they patrolled the ^gean Sea, took Pirsecus, 
and threatened to make themselves masters of the East. 
Before the end of the century (272) they had driven the 
Romans out of Dacia. For the next hundred years they 
gave little trouble, but by 367 they have been stirred up 
by the Huns and soon after enter the Empire by permis- 
sion, 376 A. D. It was about this time that the 
division into the East Goths and West Goths became 
generally recognized. {De Rebus Geticis of Jordanes. 
Art. " Goths,'' by Freeman, in Encyc. Brit. X., 846-854.) 

3. Jordanes. Time of Justinian — middle of the 
sixth century. Historian of the Goths. He was secre- 
tary to the chief of a barbarian confederation on the 
lower Danube. Later he became a monk. Spent his 



16 THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 

decliniDg years in Italy, but was not bishop of Ravenna 
as so often stated. His most important work— a sort of 
compendium of Cassidorus's The Origin and Actions of 
the Goths, now lost, is known as the Be Rebus Geticis, 
The oldest known manuscript of this book perished by 
fire in the house of Professor Mommsen. Jordanes is 
much of a sycophant, currying favor with both Romans 
and Goths by praising first one, then the other. (Art. 
*' Jordanes/' Encyc. Brit.) 

4. Ulfilas (Wulfilas, Little Wolf), 311-381 
A. D. The apostle to the Goths. Converted to Chris- 
tianity. Made a bishop. Translated the Bible (except 
the Samuels and the Kings, Why ?) into Gothic. This 
Gothic Bible is the oldest writing in the Teutonic 
language. Hence Ulfilas has been called " the father of 
Teutonic literature." Ulfilas had also great political 
influence among the Goths which he exerted for Rome. 
Through his Bible and his preaching Christianity spread 
rapidly through most of the Teutonic tribes before they 
entered Rome. It is to this fact more than any other 
that we owe the preservation of so much of the Roman 
civilization as survived the invasions which broke up the 
Empire to found on its ruins the modern nations of 
Europe. (Waitz, Das Leben des Ulfilas. Art. " Ulfilas," 
Encyc. Brit.) 

5. The Gothic Bible of Ulfilas. Till the ninth 
century this sacred and national work accompanied the 
Goths in all their migrations. But from that period 



THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 17 

nothing was known of it beyond what was found 
stated in the ancient ecclesiastical accounts, until the 
end of the eleventh century when Arnold Mercator 
discovered in the Abbey of Werden the gospels of 
Ulfilas. Then the manuscript found its way to Prague, 
where it remained till 1648, when the Swedes took it as 
a spoil to Upsal, where it still remains in the University 
Library, under the name of Codex Argenteus (because 
written in silver letters on purple parchment). In 1818 
further remnants of the work — a great portion of the 
letters of St. Paul — were discovered by A. Mai and 
Castiglioni, on palimpsests, (what?) in a TiOmbardian 
monastery, which, added to a few minor fragments, bring 
the New Testament somewhat near completion. " But 
hardly anything — except a few passages from Ezra and 
Nehemiah — has survived of the Old Testament." 

6. Arianism.— The form of Christianity which Ulfilas 
adopted and taught was called Arianism, from its founder 
Arius. Arius had been first deacon, then presbyter in 
the church of Alexandria, Egypt. He studied and 
expounded the Bible. In a conference, Alexander, 
bishop of Alexandria, remarked that the Trinity con- 
tained one essence only. Arius retorted that such a 
conception was impossible. From this chance conversa- 
tion matters grew worse and worse till Arius declared 
that the Son was not co-equal with the Father (Homo- 
ousious, same substance) but that he was only the highest 
of God's finite creatures (Homoiousious, like substance), 
and that the Holy Ghost was not God. This idea of 



l^ THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 

Jesus as only the leader of men powerfully affected the 
warlike barbarians when presented to them by Ulfilas 
who appears to have been an Arian. This little qu^uTel 
of two Alexandrian churchmen had a mighty effect upon 
the future course of the world's history. Was it responsi- 
ble for the Papacy ? For the division of the Church 
into Eastern and Western? (Gibbon, Ch. XXXVII, 
p 540-548) Was John Milton an» Arian? (Art. 
"Arius,'' Encyc. Brit. Gibbon, XXVIl, XXVIII. 
Emerton's Introd. III.) 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 19 



Part II. BEGINNINGS OF MODERN 

NATIONS. 



CHAPTER VII.— THE WEST GOTHS. 

1. Theodosius, 376-395 A. D. — Last to rale over 
tlie empire of the Csesars. At his death the empire was 
given to his sons — Arcadius in the East, Honorius in the J 
West. Theodosius was a Spaniard by birth, received a i 
military education under his father who was for years 

the ablest general of the West. Made Emperor of the 
East by Gratian after the defeat and death of Yalens. 
Theodosius beat the West Goths by stirring them up to 
internal war. Next he led an army of Alans, Goths 
and Huns against the West. The usurper, Maximus, 
with an army of Gauls and Germans, was defeated by 
Theodosius with West Goths and Huns. Thus had the 
empire already become barbarian though still retaining 
the old forms and ideas. It is to the son of Theodosius 
the Great that we owe the Theodosian code. 

2. Stilicho. — A Vandal ; general of Theodosius the 
Great. Sent to Persia on a diplomatic mission, which 
was performed with honor to the state. Married the 
adopted daughter of Theodosius. Made protector of the 
two sons of Theodosius. One of these, Honorius, mar- 
ried (398) Stilicho's daughter, and (408) his sister. 
Stilicho was the last, if not the greatest, of the barbarian 



20 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 

generals who had been the support of the Empire for a 
century and a-half. Soon after the death of Theodosius 
he defeated Alaric and the West Goths, driving them out 
of Peloponnesus. A little later Alaric entered Italy, 
but was again met by Stilicho, who defeated the West 
Goths at Pollentia (402), Verona (403), and the East 
Goths under Radagaisus at Fiesole (405). Then the 
foolish Houorius listened to charges of treason, and the 
bravest of Rome's barbarian generals was politically 
murdered in violation of a sacred oath. 

3. Alaric. — One of the ablest of the earlier invaders 
of Italy was Alaric, who became king of the West Goths 
395 A. D., soon after the death of Theodosius. The 
Goths had been quiet for near a dozen years, but Alaric 
at once headed a general uprising. We have seen (Sec. 2) 
how he was driven back by Stilicho from both Greece 
and Italy. But the Gothic appetite for plunder had 
grown too keen for restraint since their taste of Roman 
wealth, and Stilicho was scarcely dead before Alaric was 
leading a new army into Italy. This time he marched 
straight on Rome. 

4. Sack of Rome by Alaric, 410 A. D. — Alaric 
complained that the Romans had not kept their engage- 
ments, and, after crossing the Po and plundering several 
cities in northern Italy, he laid siege to Rome 409. 
Ambassadors asked his terms. They were too hard. 
" The closer hay is pressed the easier it is mown,'^ said 
Alaric, and soon the starving people had to promise a 
large treasure and extensive lands in north Italy. Alaric 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 21 

withdrew. The simple Honorius, who had fled to 
Ravenna, refused assent. Siege renewed. Alaric's 
moderation. More bad faith. City taken by storm 
(410) and given over to six days of plunder. Alaric 
appoints an Emperor in place of Honorius. 

5. West Goths Established in Spain. — From 
ruined Rome Alaric moved southwards, but was pre- 
vented from invading Africa by the destruction of his 
fleet. His death. Burial in the channel of the Busento 
(?). Succeeded by his brother-in-law, Athaulf, who 
marries the Emj)eror's sister, Placidia. Peace con- 
cluded. Southern Gaul and S})ain given to the West 
Goths on condition of driving out the Alani, the Suevi, 
and the Vandals. Founding of West Gothic kingdom, 
415 A. D. (Gibbon, XXIX-XXXII.) 



CHAPTER VIII.— SPAIN IIS^ THE MIDDLE AGE. 

1. First of the Modern Nations Established 
ON Roman Territory. — With the establishment of the 
West Goths in southern Gaul and northern Spain the 
ancient history of the third great peninsula of southern 
Europe closes and a new period begins. The capital of 
the West Goths was at Toulouse (location ?) with Toledo 
(where?) as the Spanish center. From the first the 
dependence of the West Goths upon the Empire was 
little more than nominal ; by the sixth century Spain 
was fairly consolidated and independent. In 711 A. D. 
the Mohammedans (Chap. XVIII, 5) overran the penin- 



22 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 

sula, crossed the Pyrenees, and for the last time 
threatened to fasten Eastern Civilization and ideas upon 
the individualistic, aggressive West. (Ibid. 1. Irving's 
Conquest of Spain.) The struggle with the Moors in 
Spain went forward actively for five hundred years, and 
they were not finally driven out (Granada) till the year in 
which Columbus discovered America. (Irving's Con- 
quest of Granada, The Alhamhra.) Portugal about 
1000 A. D. won independence through good service 
against the Moors. From that time the rest of Spain 
came gradually to recognize the two kingdoms of Castile 
and Aragon. The union of these was prepared by the 
marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella (1469) (Prescott's 
Ferdinand and Isabella), and Spain soon became the 
foremost nation of the world. Her decline may be 
dated from the defeat of the Armada, 1588. (Creasy, X. 
Irving's Spanish Voyages.) The world is indebted to 
Spain for much of the learning of the Middle Age, 
especially in medicine, possibly even for the university 
spirit (Salamanca?) and for the discovery of America. 
On the other hand Spain gave the world the Inquisition 
(Lea's History of the Inquisition), and her downfall may 
be credited to her systematic efforts to crush every spark 
of individual liberty. (Art. "Spain," Part II, Encyc. 
Brit. XXII, 304-346. Good historical map opp. 
p. 304.)^ 

^ In 1588 Spain represented the Latin spirit — suppression of indi- 
vidual liberty ; England, the Teutonic spirit — liberty of thought and 
action. Note in the attitude of Spain and the United States now 
(1898) these two principles once more in conflict. 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 23 

2. The Vandals in Europe, 100-429. — From the 
shores of the Baltic (time of Tacitus) the Vandals 
moved southward into Bohemia, and finally, after many 
defeats, settled as Koman subjects in Pannonia (region 
between the Drave and the Danube). Of Teutonic stock, 
closely related to the Goths. In 406, time of the weak 
Honorius, the Vandals invaded Gaul. (One of the 
charges against Stilicho, Honorius' advisor, was that 
being himself a Vandal, he had winked at this invasion. 
Chap. VII. sec. 2). In Gaul they suffered defeat and 
severe loss by the Franks, and in 409 made their way 
across the Pyrenees. Here, for twenty years, they 
waged continual war with Romans or Goths indifferently, 
and in 429 crossed to Africa, leaving no more than their 
name to mark one of the most delightful districts of 
Spain (V) Andalusia. 

3. The Vandals in Africa, One Century. 
429-534 A. D. — Invited to Africa by Boniface, the 
Governor, Geiseric had no sooner acted upon the invita- 
tion than he was besought to depart. Instead of doing 
so Geiseric besieged Hippo, which fell after a year of 
stubborn resistance. Carthage was left to Boniface, but 
ten years after (439) Geiseric, without declaring war, 
took Carthage, and Africa became a Vandal state. 

4. "Vandalism." — Vandals appear to have been a 
restless, marauding sort of people (nation of bandits?). 
In 405, in response to the invitation of Eudoxia, widow 
of Valentinian, Geiseric sailed up the Tiber (first Teutonic 



24 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 

people to foster a navy ? But see Chap. YI., 2.), took 
Rome, ^' and for fourteen days, in a calm and business- 
like manner, emptied it of all its movable wealth " 
(including the vessels brought by Titus from the Temple 
at Jerusalem?). The common report of their wanton 
destruction of temples and art treasures is false. Our 
word, ^' Vandalism," probably arose from the severity of 
the persecution of Roman Catholics waged by the Arian 
(meaning?) Vandals. This deadly persecution formed 
the chief business of the remaining eighty years of Van- 
dal history. In 533, Justinian (Chap. XL, 2), the Eastern 
emperor, sent his great general, Belisarius {Ibid.), to end 
the cruelties of the Vandals. Their king, Gelimer, was 
captured, and with great numbers of his subjects taken to 
Constantinople. The Vandals disappear from history. 
" Justinian sowed that Mahommed might reap." (Art. 
" Vandals," Encyc. Brit.) 

5. Burgundy, 443-534. — About the middle of the 
third century the Burgundians passed from the Vistula 
and Oder to the Rhine and Main. District about Worms. 
The Roman general, Aetius, moved them (443) to the 
Rhone south of Lake Geneva. Almost without a history 
during its brief century of independent existence. Bur- 
gundy disappeared from the maps, having become (534) 
part of the Frankish Empire. (Emerton's Introd. ch. IV.) 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 25 



CHAPTER IX.— ATTILA ANI> THE HUNS. 

1. Attila, King of the Huns. — Chap. V., 3.) 
Born probably about 406 A. D. Became King of the 
Huns 434 A. D. Killed his brother Bleda in order to 
make himself supreme. He ruled over a motley host of 
many tribes. His dominions are said to have extended 
at one time from the Rhiue to China. Soon after becom- 
ing king he invaded the Eastern Empire, but was defeated 
in three battles. He laid waste the whole country around 
Constantinople (445) and Theodosius had to make terms. 
Plot to assassinate Attila. Plot discovered. Christian 
Emperor upbraided by the heathen for want of honor. 
About to renew war. Attila finally moved west instead. 

2. Invasion of the Huns. — It seems a little remark- 
able that so wild a man ruling so barbarous a people 
should have dreamed, as had Alexander, Csesar, and 
others before him, Karl the Great, and Napoleon after 
him, of a world empire. Yet he did. Under his leader- 
ship the Huns had soon pushed as far as Pesth on the 
Danube. Declining Rome bought peace with a heavy 
tribute. Honoria, a Roman princess, offered to marry 
Attila. Meanwhile he prepared to push still to the West. 

3. Battle of Chalons. " Catalaunian Fields." 
451 A. D. — (Time of the English invasions of Britain.) 
The precise location of the battle field is not known, but 
it was not far from Chalons in the northeastern Gaul. 
(See Map, Emerton's Introd.) The Roman forces in 



26 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 

Gaul were commanded by Aetiiis. They bad tbe power- 
ful West Gotbs under Tbeodoric for allies. Attila 
crossed the Rhine near its mouthy passed Paris then an 
insignificant village on a little island in the Seine, and 
moved on to Orleans on the Loire. Here he was turned 
back. Aetius and Tbeodoric followed. Near Chalons 
Attila turned and fought. From three o'clock in the 
afternoon till dark the battle raged. Great numbers fell 
on both sides. Neither seemed to have won a victory, 
but in the morning it was discovered that Attila had 
continued his flight. Has the battle of Chalons been 
greatly exaggerated both as to its fierceness and its remote 
effects? (Creasy, ch. VI.) 

4. Venice Founded. — Turning southward Attila 
entered Italy 452, overran Lombardy, and took Aquileia 
(where?). Jt is to this event that Venice owes its origin. 
Fleeing from the fierceness of the Huns many of the people 
found refuge in the islands of the northern Adriatic, lay- 
ing there the foundations of one of the most important 
cities of the Middle Ages. 

5. What Became of the Huns. — Attila conquered 
all Italy north of the Apennines. Rome seemed sure to 
fall into his hands when there came one day to Attila's 
camp the venerable Roman bishop (Pope?) Leo at the 
head of an embassy to beg for mercy. What effect this 
strange embassy had upon Attila is not known, but one 
of the most inexplicable things in history now happened. 
With the certain and easy conquest of all Italy with its 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 27 

wealth and power in full view, Attila turned from Italy, 
leaving " nothing but the terror of his name." He was 
long remembered as the "Scourge of God/^ but later 
German legends make a great hero of him. Within a 
year after leaving Italy Attila " died like a dog, ... in 
drunken sleep." With the fall of Attila the Huns are 
scattered, to be known no more in history as a nation. 
(Emerton's InfrocL, Ch. IV.) 



CHAPTER X,— THE EAST GOTHS. ITALY. 

1. East Goths, 376-493 A. D. When the West 
Goths were admitted by Valeus the like application of 
the East Goths was refused. (Chap. Y , 4.) Hence they 
made frequent incursions into Roman territory. Attempt- 
ing to cross the Danube in 386 A. D., they were attacked 
by the Romans and many thousands are said to have 
perished either by the sword or the river. Henceforth 
they were ready to join any force hostile to Rome. Thus 
they fought at Chalons with Attila and his Huns against 
their brethren, the West Goths, who had sided with the 
Romans. (Chap. IX, 3.) Under Theodoric, the greatest 
of their kings (there was another Theodoric king of the 
West Goths a little earlier. Chap. IX, 3), 475 A. D., 
they again attacked the Eastern Empire. Received some 
of the richest provinces. Planned with Zeno (488) an 
attack on Odovaker (" Rome.'^ Chap. XXY, 5) in Italy. 
Odovaker defeated and slain (by Theodoric's own hand ?) 
and the kingdom of the East Goths established in Italy. 



28 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 

2. Theodoeic, the East Goth. — Born near present 
site of Vienna. Greatest in the line of the great Amah'. 
At age of eight he was given as a hostage to Leo, emperor 
of the East. Educated by the Romans at Constantinople. 
Learned war, scorned science. Refused to learn to write 
his name. Made his mark — literally as well as figura- 
tively. Returned to his people at age of eighteen. Led 
a successful expedition against Belgrade (Singidunum). 
Became king 475 A. D. Then came his fourteen years 
of war against Zeno, and the invasion of Italy (488). 

3. East Goths in Italy, 493-553 A. D. With 
the overthrow of Odovaker (493) Theodoric, the East 
Goth, became king of Italy. Recall the establishment of 
a Teutonic nation — West Goths — in Spain 415 A. D. 
(Chap. VII, 5.) Now the very seat itself of the nation 
which had endured more than 1200 years is occupied by 
a barbarian nation. (In what sense barbarians ?) Theo- 
doric himself was a Roman by education (Sec. 2,) and he 
did all in his power to preserve Roman civilization. The 
East Goths made not Rome but Ravenna (where?) their 
capital. Peace. Prosperity. Corn exported instead of 
imported. Religious liberty. But Theodoric had Boetius, 
author of '' The Consolations of Philosophy,'^ put to 
death — suspected of plotting to restore Rome to the 
Eastern Empire. 

4. What Became of the East Goths. — After the 
death of Theodoric (526) the Roman Catholic and Arian 
faiths clashed. Besides Justinian had come to the throne 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 29 

of the Eastern Empire in 527. Justinian dreamed of 
restoring the empire to its original boundaries. The 
Vandals were the first to fall before his general, Beli- 
sarius. (Chap. VIII, 3.) Belisarius then crossed to 
Italy, received the support of all the discontented, and 
strove for five years without success to drive the East 
Goths from Italy. But Theodoric's efforts to weld 
Romans and Goths had failed. Rome had been too long 
without an emperor, and the Bishop of Rome (Pope?) 
had become too powerful to submit tamely to a people 
regarded as barbarians and — what was far worse, heretics. 
Still took hard fighting when Belisarius returned after 
several years to drive out the Goths. It was not finally 
done till Narses hired other Germans with whose aid he 
defeated the Goths in 553. The East Goths soon dis- 
appeared from history. Italy was nominally united with 
the empire, but was practically independent. Growth of 
the power of the Pope. 

5. The Lombards in Italy, 568 A. D. — ISarses 
was given the title of Exarch, and from Ravenna he 
ruled Italy for the empire. Justinian's successors 
angered Narses, who, in revenge, invited the Lombards 
into Italy. Accordingly, under Alboin, their king, the 
Lombards (Langobardi, long beards), took Pavia after a 
three years' siege, made it their capital, established 
themselves in the Po Valley (Lombardy to this day) and 
rapidly overran the rest of Italy, which they governed 
by Lombard dukes. The Lombards were at first ruder 
than the Goths, but they gradually improved, gave up 



30 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 

Arianism for the orthodox faith and systematized their 
laws for the use of the courts. By the middle of the 
eighth century, when the Popes first appealed to the 
Franks, the Lombards had become a powerful nation. 
(Emerton's Introd. ch. V., VI. Paul us Diaconus, His- 
tory of the Lombards. Gibbon, XXXIX., XLII., 
XLIII.) 

6. Italy had thus early become the football of the 
nations. Owing to the acquisition of temporal power by 
the Popes, it remained disunited almost to our own day 
(1861), Garibaldi, Cavour, Victor Emmanuel. The 
papacy appears still to yearn for temporal power, and 
the future of Italy cannot yet be regarded as fully 
assured. 



CHAPTER XI.— THE EASTER:N^ EMPIRE A5^D 

THE FRANKS. 

1. Division of the Roman Empire. — (Review.) — 
Empire first divided by Diocletian (284-305 A. D.) 
Eastern capital Nicomedia (where ?) ; Western capital, 
Milan (Midiolanum) (when did Rome fall?). Constan- 
tine (306-337) made Byzantium the real seat of the 
whole empire. After Constantiue a period of anarchy. 
United for a short time under Theodosius (379-395) the 
Empire was finally divided, at his death, into the Em- 
pire of the East and the Empire of the West, 395 A. D. 
Twenty years before this the Goths had begun their 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 31 

invasions in earnest, and we have seen what became of 
the Empire of the West. (Chap. X, 1 .) 

2. Justinian. 527-565 A. D. — Justinian was born 
in the wilds of what is now Bulgaria, '^ of an obscure 
race of barbarians." His uncle, Justin, had traveled on 
foot to Constantinople, had risen rapidly — Tribune, 
Count, General, Senator, Chief of the Guards, and finally, 
at the age of sixty-eight. Emperor. Justinian was 
brought to Constantinople, educated and made his uncle's 
heir. Justinian, shrewd and ambitious, got himself 
made Emperor before his uncle's death. Justinian was 
not truly great ; the morals of his age cannot be depicted 
in decent company ; his wife, Theodora, had been one of 
the most depraved women that ever disgraced the pages 
of history. (See Gibbon, ch. XL., pp. 49-51), though 
her life was reformed before she became queen. Recon- 
quest of the West by Belisarius and Xarses. (Chap. X, 
4, 5). Justinian '' was neither beloved in his life nor 
regretted in his death." 

3. The ^' Blues and the Greens." — Names of the 
two political parties at Constantinople. These names 
had come from the Roman circus, where the charioteers 
were distinguished by blue and green liveries. The pop- 
ular effect was the same as that of college or class colors. 
Whoever attended the games, even the Emperor himself, 
was either a "blue" or a "green." This was all repro- 
duced in the Hippodrome at Constantinople. Here, 
however, at least from the time of Justinian, the Em- 



32 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 

perors sided with the Blues. So violent was the hatred 
between these parties that murders were frequent. Just 
before Justinian's reign the " Greens '' had concealed 
stones and daggers in baskets of fruit and massacred at 
one time 3,000 " Blues ^' at a festival. These factions 
became permanent and it is chiefly to their violence that 
the final overthrow of the Empire by the Turks (1453) 
is to be attributed. (Gibbon, ch. XL., pp. 56-64.) 

4. Roman Law. — Notwithstanding his many other 
services, it is probably for his success in preserving the 
Roman law that later ages have been most indebted to 
Justinian. The '' Laws of Justinian," so called, are to 
this day a great storehouse for the student of jurispru- 
dence. Justinian himself was both a lawyer and a 
legislator, yet he did not make all or any considerable 
number of the laws called by his name. He did not 
even make the compilation himself. What he did 
accomplish — through Tribonian and others learned in the 
law — was the codification, and hence the preservation of 
all the laws of Rome in force in his time. Unfortun- 
ately, after this several older codes — Ulpian, Paulus, 
Gaius — fell into disuse and have been lost. 

5. Code of Justinian. — This was a collection in 
twelve books of all the laws of Rome then in force, 
made by Tribonian, who did not scruple to alter or 
adapt, as the need of his own age required. A second 
edition soon appeared containing a large number of laws 
and edicts made by Justinian himself. 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 33 

6. The Pandects, or Digest. — Celebrated collec- 
tioD of " opinions, explanations and decisions '^ which 
served in Justinian's time as precedents. Made also by 
Tribonian, who, with fifteen assistants, was engaged three 
years in making a great collection of extracts, in fifty 
books from thirty-nine writers. Of these, one-third of 
the entire work is from Ulpian alone, while Paulus and 
Papinian come next in importance. " By far the most 
precious monument of the legal genius of the Komans.^' 

7. The Institutes of Justinian. — A treatise on 
the general principles of the Roman law. This was a 
text-book prepared also by Tribonian, with the assistance 
of the Professor of law in the University of Constanti- 
nople and the Professor of Law in the great law school 
at Beyrout. 

Note. — There was a later unauthorized collection of 
contributions called the Codex Novellae, (Gibbon, Ch. 
XL., XLL, XL IV. For the Germanic ideas of Law, 
see Emerton's Introd. Ch. VIII.) 



CHAPTER XII.— EARLY HISTORY OF 

FRANCE. 

1. Gaul.— '' The name given by the Romans to the 
country lying between the Rhine and the Pyrenees." As 
early as B. C. 600 Greeks had settled Massilia. (Where?) 
They had first called the whole of Southwestern Europe 
" Celtice,'^ later " Gallia." Gaul is formally introduced 
to the world in Caesar's ^' Gallic Wars," though fifty 
2 



34 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 

years earlier a portion of Gaul lying on the Rhone had 
been made a Roman province. The Gauls imposed their 
manners and customs upon a subject race (Iberians?) just 
as they in turn were themselves thoroughly Romanized. 
Caesar's conquest (B. C. 58-50) the beginning of this 
process. After Caesar little attention paid to the coun- 
try till the Empire was established. Gaul was then 
divided into four provinces, which, in the fourth century, 
were further divided into seventeen. 

2. Invasions of the Franks. — (See map — Encyc. 
Brit. IX., 723 — and notice that the Salian (sala, an 
inheritance?) Franks lie west of the Rhone near its 
mouth, and the Ripuarian (bankmen, or bank defenders,) 
Franks also west of the Rhine farther inland.) In 241 
A. D. the name " Franks " first appears in '^ a rough 
barrack song^' — 

•* Mille Sarmatas, mille Francos, semel et semel occidimus ; 
Mille, mille, mille, mille, mille, Persas quaerimus!" 

It is known that Franks lived also on the German 
side of the Rhine. They are soon at war with Rome ; 
defeated by Julian (358 A. D.) ; many take service in the 
Roman armies, and by the end of the fourth century they 
had made Northern Gaul practically independent. They 
as often fought for the Romans as against them, however, 
(e. g., the battle of Chalons), till under Chlodwig (Clovis 
— 481-511) an independent Frankish kingdom was 
established. Chlodwig founded the Merwing (Mero- 
vingian) house — the beginning of France proper. (Gui- 
zot's France f I., 108.) 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 35 

3. Chlodwig. — It must be remembered that the 
Franks were Germanic, and Chlodwig was a German in 
the same sense that the conquerors of Britain were Ger- 
mans. Chlodwig was only fifteen years old when, by the 
death of his father, he became king of the Salian Franks. 

4. The Vase of Soisson. — Soon after Chlodwig 
ascended the throne of the Franks he defeated the West 
Goths, whose kingdom extended far up into France (See 
Map, T. and S., pp. 72, 73), and took Soisson. In a 
marauding expedition they had taken from the church 
of Rheims '^ a vase of marvelous size and beauty.'^ The 
bishop, who knew Chlodwig slightly, sent to ask the return 
at least of this vase. The messenger was invited to Sois- 
son, where the division of spoil would take place, and was 
promised that when the lots had given Chlodwig the vase 
it should be returned. The booty was piled in the midst, 
and Chlodwig asked, in addition to his lot, the vase, 
which was cheerfully granted by his warriors. Then a 
silly, jealous soldier struck the vase with his axe, crying, 
" Thou shalt have naught of all this save what the lots 
shall truly give thee." Chlodwig gave the vase to the 
messenger and " bore the insult with sweet patience, . . . 
hiding his wound in the recesses of his heart.'^ A whole 
year after, having drawn up his warriors for review, he 
passed down the line till he came last to the fellow who 
had struck the vase. Chlodwig reproved him sharply 
for his poor arms, and snatching his battle-axe threw it 
on the ground. As the soldier stooped to pick it up the 
king buried his own axe in the fellow's skull, saying, 



36 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 

" Thus didst thou to the vase of Soisson." " By this act 
he made himself greatly feared.'^ (Guizot's France^ I, 
109, 110.) 

5. Chlodwig's Conversion. — Chlodwig had married 
Clotilde, niece of the Burgundian king. She was a 
Christian, and Chlodwig came gradually toward her 
religion. In 496 A. D. Chlodwig was on the point of 
defeat in a great battle with the Allemans ; then he 
prayed to '' the Lord of heaven, whom the queen 
preached.'' (See this prayer. Guizot's France^ I, 115.) 
Immediately the tide of battle turned. Chlodwig 
declared himself converted and was baptized with his 
followers. This act led eventually to the establishment 
of the Holy Roman Empire. (Chap. XV., 6.) 

6. Death of Chlodwig, 511 A. D. — The reign of 
Chlodwig had consolidated and greatly enlarged the 
territories of the Franks. Chlodwig had overthrown, 
*' often by the foulest means," all the little independencies 
around him. Still because he protected the bishops they 
praised him extravagantly. He was even regarded as a 
sort of David, and Gregory of Tours said, '' Thus every 
day God put down the enemies of Chlodwig and increased 
his kingdom, because he walked with a heart that was 
right before God and did that which was pleasing in His 
eyes!" At the death of Chlodwig his kingdom was 
divided among his four sons, and for more than a 
century France was to grope in the da-rk ^under the 
"do-nothing kings." (Emerton's Introd.y ch. VII. 
Gregory of Tours. Historia Francorum,) 



PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 37 



Part III. -THE NATIONS ASSUME 
THEIR PRESENT TERRI- 
TORIAL LIMITS. 



CHAPTER XIII.— FRANCE UNDER THE 
"DO-NOTHING KINGS." 

1. France and the Papacy. — During the long 
period of troubles in Rome which followed Constautine's 
desertion, the church of Rome grew apace. The bishop 
of Rome was till that time, in no way superior to the 
bishops of other great cities like Antioch, Alexandria, 
Constantinople, if not indeed distinctly inferior to some 
of them. Constant! ne had brought an obscure, very 
imperfectly organized sect into sudden prominence and 
power. Defects in organization had to be suddenly 
supplied and the church molded itself consciously on the 
forms of the Empire. Rome had been head of the 
Empire; the bishops of Rome at once insisted that it 
should be the head of the church. So vigorously was the 
assumption attacked that the bishops had to fortify their 
claims with the assertion that Peter had been the first 
bishop of Rome and his successors should be accorded 
first place in the church. In their frantic race for power 
the bishops of Rome turned from the Arians of Italy to 
the orthodox Franks, who from the time of Chlodwig 
were firm allies of the Pa})acy. This alliance deter- 
mines the course of political affairs in the Middle Age. 



38 PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 

(Eraerton's Introd., ch. IX. Gibbon, ch. XV., XVI. 

Among the most famous chapters in Gibbon.) 

2. Neustria. — Half a century after the death of 
Chlodwig his kingdom was divided. Neustria was the 
western side of the Frankish dominion. Romanized 
Kelts greatly outnumbered Franks. 

3. AusTRASiA. — The eastern side of the Frankish 
dominions. Franks greatly outnumbered Kelts; thor- 
oughly German. (See map, pp. 96, 97; also Emerton's 
Inirod.^ pp. 114, 115. Notice that the battle of Soisson 
extended the Frankish territory no farther south than 
Loire. 

4. Fredegonda, Queen of Neustria. — Chilperic's 
favorite concubine. She was of peasant birth ; a power- 
ful, coarse, and incredibly cruel woman ; " beautiful, 
dexterous, ambitious, and bold." When in 566 Chilperic 
married Galswintha, a West Gothic princess, he put 
away his concubines. Galswintha brought vast treasures, 
but never won the king's love which Fredegonda had 
managed to hold. Galswintha became jealous and offered 
the king all her treasure if he would send her home free. 
Upon this Chilperic murdered (had her strangled in bed 
by a slave) the princess whom he had sought to be his 
wife, and " when he had mourned for her death, he 
espoused Fredegonda after an interval of a few days ! " 
Fredegonda had caused Chilperic to banish and then 
murder one queen before this. The long story of her 
unbridled license and murders cannot be rehearsed here. 



PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 39 

It culminates in an intrigue with a household officer. 
She had Chilperic slain to prevent his discovery of it. 
She had Gregory, bishop of Tours, tried for treason, but 
the old historian escaped conviction, ^^She died quietly 
at Paris, in 597 or 598, powerful and dreaded.'' (See 
Guizot's France, I, 134-137.) 

5. Brunhilda, Queen of Austrasia. — Of noble 
birth, sister to Galswintha, and wife to Sigebert, king of 
Austrasia. The murder of Galswintha made Brun- 
hilda the mortal and life-long enemy of the barbarous 
Neustrasian Queen. War at once broke out. Sige- 
bert was victorious, but was just then assassinated by 
Fredegonda's emissaries. Brunhilda fell into the hands 
of Chilperic. Saved by asylum in Paris Cathedral. 
(Explain this.) Sent to Rouen. Chilperic's son was at 
Rouen on a mission, was smitten with Brunhilda's beauty 
and married her. Brunhilda thus became heir to Frede- 
gonda's throne ! But the Austrasians would not give up 
their queen. Fredegonda's fury pursued her stepson so 
relentlessly that he had himself killed. At last (614) 
Brunhilda, at the age of eighty fell into the hands of 
Fredegonda's son and successor, Clothar 11, who had her 
*'tied by the hair, one foot and one arm to the tail of an 
unbroken horse, that carried her away, and dashed her 
to pieces as he galloped and kicked, beneath the eyes of 
the ferocious spectators " (Clothar's army). 

Note. — These stories must not be taken too seriously, 
though they are gravely related by Gregory of Tours, 
the historian of this period. 



40 PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 

6. Major Domus. — '^ Chief among the Frankish 
nobles were those who held an office near the person of 
the kings'^ — something like that of a prime minister; 
very much the sort of person that Prince Bismarck was 
for so long in the State of Prussia. This major domus, 
master or mayor of the palace became the most powerful 
prince at a Frankish court. Strong major domus, weak 
king. Office of major domus becomes hereditary ; the 
kings become puppets. (Cf. Odovaker and the last 
Roman Emperors in the West. ^' Rome,'' Chap. XXV, 
5.) Very much in the same way the Merwing Kings 
of France — '' Les rois faineants'' — were displaced by 
the energetic mayors of the palace, who presently had 
themselves declared king, thus founding the mighty 
Karling dynasty. 



CHAPTER XIV.— ALLIANCE BETWEEN 
THE POPES AND THE FRANKS. 

1. Karl Martel. (Circa 689-741.)— Son of Pip- 
pin of Heristal, duke of Austrasia and major domus of 
the kings of France. He was disinherited by his father, 
but was made duke, nevertheless, by the popular voice. 
Karl Martel was a ruler by nature, and a conqueror. 
He laid the foundations of the vast empire of his grand- 
son, Karl the Great. He subdued Neustria and Aquitaine, 
drove back the Saxons, and — what meant far more than 
all these to Europe — he met and defeated the Moham- 
medans in their career of world conquest between Tours 
and Poitiers in 732 A. D. (Creasy, Ch. VII.) From 



PEESENT TEREITORIAL LIMITS. 41 

the heavy blows he here dealt the Saracens comes his 
surname — Martel, Hammer. Neglecting the puppet 
king who had been brought from a monastery and com- 
pelled to reign (?) Karl at his death divided his hard 
won territories between his two sons. Carloman died. 
Pippin became sole ruler and left the kingdom to his 
son, the greatest of the Karlings. 

2. From Major Domus to King. — When Pippin 
le Bref succeeded Karl Martel it was indeed as real ruler, 
but not with the title of king. It was still thought 
wise to retain a phantom king. But Pippin le Bref was 
as active and able as his father had been, and he at last 
determined to assume the dignity as well as the responsi- 
bility of his office. Pippin accordingly addressed to 
Pope Stephen III (whose pretensions Pippin had sup- 
ported) this question : " Should he have the title of 
king who has inherited it without power, or should he 
who has long been the real king?" The Pope in grati- 
tude could send but one answer. The puppet king, 
Chilperic, was deposed and sent to a monastery while 
Pippin was anointed and crowned king of the Franks 
752. Karlidng ynasty founded. (See map, T. and S., 
pp. 96, 97.) 

3. The Papacy. — We have seen how the Bishop of 
Rome profited by the removal of the Emperor to Con- 
stantinople. (Chap. XIII, 1.) From that time it 
might almost be said that there were two worlds, each 
with its church and each with its empire. No sooner 
did the empire wane in Kome that the church sprang 
ambitiously into its place. No sooner did the empire 



42 PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 

flourish in Constantinople than the church so felt its 
dignity that it refused to yield precedence to the Roman 
bishop. If, therefore, the empire survived in Constanti- 
nople (1) it must actually rule the Roman Bishop, or (2) 
he would rule the Eastern church, or (3) there must be 
two churches. The Eastern church could never rule the 
Roman bishop until the imperial power should be felt 
at Rome, nor could the Eastern church submit to the 
Roman bishop while the empire flourished at Constanti- 
nople. What this curious situation actually evolved 
was two churches and two empires. The nominal 
separation in the church came first. The question of the 
of the worship of images was raised. The West declared 
for images ; the East declared against them. After a 
long, fierce struggle, the East was excommunicated, and 
a final separation took place. The images still have a 
place in the worship of the Roman Catholic Church. 

4. The Bishop of Rome Independent of the 
Empire. — Tliis conflict about images (Iconoclasm) had 
another important result in the complete independence of 
the Roman bishop. Naturally the emperor at Constanti- 
nople sided with the East against images. At last the 
Roman bishop went so far as to excommunicate the 
Emperor himself. This was equivalent to a declaration 
of war. Both parties prepared. (It was just about this 
time that far off in Asia Mohammed was teaching another 
church, called heathen, to extend its dominion by the 
sword.) A fleet sent to take the Pope was wrecked. 
^^The rebellion of the Pope had succeeded, and the Eastern 
Emperor never again received his allegiance." (Ch. XII.) 



PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 43 

5. The Popes Turn to the Franks. — But the 
Pope had escaped one master only to find himself exposed 
to another more dano;erous, because nearer — the Lom- 
bards. (Chap. X., 5.) Tlie King of the Lombards had 
caused the Pope much trouble and was now again 
threatening Rome. In his distress the successor of St. 
Peter appealed to Pippin. (Letter from St. Peter him- 
self.) The Lombards were driven back and the conquered 
cities given to the Pope. Beginning of the territorial 
(temporal) power of the Papacy. 



CHAPTEK XV.-KARL THE GREAT. 

1. Karl Becomes King of the Franks, 771 
A. D. — In 768 Pippin died. — His dominions — according 
to the fatal rule of the Franks — were divided among his 
sons, Carloman and Karl. Carloman soon died and 
Karl the Great became sole monarch of the Franks in 
77L 

2. An Important Divorce Case. — Karl married 
a daughter of the Lombard king, but within a year di- 
vorced her and sent her back. Upon this divorce perhaps 
turns the course of events for the Middle Age. Had the 
alliance between the Popes and Franks (Chap. XIV., 5,) 
been broken, as it must have been had this marriage 
united the Franks and the Lombards, the Popes could 
scarely have held out against this combined force. There 
could then have been no Holy Roman Empire, (Sec. 6,) 
and future events must have taken a wholly different course. 



44 PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 

3. Conquest of the Lombards, 773 A. D. — As it 
was the Franks and the Lombards, were raade mortal 
enemies. The Popes called upon Karl for protection. 
He marched into Italy, (773,) beat the Lombards, spent 
Easter with the Pope, and confirmed the donations of 
Pippin. (Chap. XIV., 5.) A few years later Karl com- 
pleted his conquest and placed the iron crown upon his 
own head. 

4. Conquest of the Saxons. — For more than 
thirty years the Saxons held out against Karl. They 
would submit when Karl led an army among them, but 
refused obedience as soon as he was gone. Pagans. 
Karl bent upon their conversion. At last Karl, driven 
to despair by the continual uprisings of the Saxons, had 
4,500 Saxon prisoners massacred in cold blood. Saxons 
finally submit. Baptized. They were held in the 
water, or were given their choice between baptism and the 
sword (See cut in Guizot's France, opp. p. 143). Even 
this did not subdue the fierce spirit of our own savage 
ancestors, and Karl had to resort to deportation. Thou- 
sands of Saxon families were scattered throughout his 
dominions. 

5. Karl's Attitude Towards Learning. — Karl 
was more than conqueror. He engaged the most learned 
men of his time to come to his court and teach. His 
very court was a sort of University — when it was not on 
an expedition, or engaged in the chase. Schools were 
founded throughout his kingdom. Alcuiu (Who?) was 
the head of the court University. Karl gave German 



PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 45 

names to the months, was interested in Astronomy, and 
compelled the priests to study. He recommended that 
there be made " no difference between the sons of serfs 
and of freemen, so that they might come and sit on the 
same benches to study grammar, music, and arithmetic. 

6. Karl Becomes Emperor. Holy Roman Em- 
pire. 800 A. D. — When Karl was in Italy, (on his 
second expedition against the Lombards ?) 800 A. D., he 
went on Christmas Day to worship in the church of 
St. Peter. While he was kneeling at the altar the Pope, 
Leo III., came behind without KarPs knowledge and 
placed upon his head the crown of the Caesars. By this act 
the Roman Empire in the West was restored ; the Holy 
Roman Empire (which was " neither holy nor Roman 
nor an Empire '') was created ; the West could never be 
re-united with the East; the course of affairs for the 
Middle Age was sketched, at least in bold outline. 



CHAPTER XVI.— THE HOL.Y ROMAN 

EMPIRE TO THE TREATY OF 

VERDUN. 843 A. I>. 

1. Two Empires. — The logic of events led to two 
churches. (Chap. XIY., 3) With the crowning of 
Karl by Leo III., in return for his own restoration, the 
the Western church effected in theory the restoration of 
the Western Empire. Why did not the Eastern Empire 
treat this as a revolt, as it really was? Because the 
separation had gradually taken place long before in fact 



46 PRESENT TERRITORIAL IJMITS. 

and needed only this completion in theory to make it 
perfect. The People of the West had long been practi- 
cally without an Emperor. In Karl they had found a 
man worthy to fill that high office. 

2. Three Theories of the Origin of the 
Holy Roman Empire. — (1) ^'The imperial party 
declared that Karl had won the crown by his conquests 
and was indebted to no one for it but himself." (2) 
" The Papal party said that the Pope, by virtue of his 
authority as successor to St. Peter, had deposed the Em- 
peror at Constantinople and conferred the crown on Karl." 
(3) '' The people of Rome also advanced a theory to the 
effect that they had elected Karl, and that they had 
revived their ancient right of electing the Emperor." 
(Criticise these theories.) It was almost three centuries 
after the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire before 
any theories about it became necessary. 

3. The Holy Roman Empire. 800-1806 A. D.— 
It would appear that a divorce led to the establishment 
of the Holy Roman Empire. (Chap. XV., 2.) It was 
actually inaugurated by the crowning of Karl on Christ- 
mas day, 800 A. D. More than a thousand years were 
to pass before Europe was to see another Karl. By that 
time the Empire had become too feeble to be of use, and 
Napoleon, choosing to rest his Empire on other theories, 
deposed Francis II, and brought the affairs of the Holy 
Roman Empire to a close in 1806. 

4. What was the Holy Roman Empire? — An 
institution rather than a State such as we now understand 



PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 47 

the word " Empire " to mean. At the time of its establish- 
ment it was really a State ruled by Karl the Great. It in- 
cluded, roughly, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, 
Italy, with indefinite pagan countries to the northeast 
waiting to be added by conquest. The prospect was 
indeed dazzling. Was the world empire nearly reached 
by Alexander, and realized by the Romans for a brief 
time, at last to be permanently established? No; if 
that dream of the ages is ever to be realized it must be 
under a federal representative government which shall 
guarantee local freedom to its members. Like the great 
bow of Odysseus KarPs great empire could be bent only 
by the master's hand. Within a single generation after 
Karl's death (843) his vast empire had been divided into 
three parts. The Holy Roman Empire embraced hence- 
forth only Germany and Italy. In its disregard of 
natural boundaries it ruined both countries. Italy, 1869, 
Germany, 1871. (Chap. X., 6. Bryce's Holy Roman 
Empire.) 

5. The Treaty of Verdun. August, 843 A. D. 
— Karl was succeeded by his son Ludwig the Pious. 
Ludwig was too lazy and worthless (pious?) to rule. 
So he divided up his kingdom among his three sons, 
817. Afterwards Ludwig had a fourth son by a later 
marriage, while one of the older sons died. Ludwig now 
tried to favor the youngest son, and the two older 
rebelled. (What was the ^' Field of Lies? '^) Ludwig's 
indecision brought misery to himself and ruin to the 
Empire. Upon Ludwig's death in 840, the oldest son, 
Lothar, claimed the Empire. Ludwig and Charles 



48 PRESENT TERRITOEIAL LIMITS. 

fought and defeated him at Fontenay. Lothar retired to 
Italy. Next spring Charles and Ludwig met near Strass- 
burg and made an alliance. Each took the oath in the 
other's language. Both preserved. Oldest documents 
showing divergence of French and German. (Emerton's 
Mediceval Europe, p. 27.) After another year of war 
the three brothers agreed to the famous Treaty of Verdun : 
Lothar, Italy and Aachen as Emperor ; Charles, France; 
Ludwig, Germany. Territorial origin of these countries. 
(See map, pp. 146, 147.) 



CHAPTER XVII.— FRANCE IN THE 
MIODL.E AGE. 

1. Last of the Karlings. — After the treaty of 
Verdun the Karling line came first to an end in Italy. 
Lothar's sons fought over his dominions, and at their 
deaths left no offspring. Succeeded by French and 
German lines. In France Charles the Bald succeeded to 
the imperial honor, but his successors were weak, and in 
884 the only Karling left in France was a boy five 
years old. The crown was given to Karl the Fat of 
Germany who had already the imperial crown. This 
was the last time the three crowns were united. With 
the death of Karl the Fat (887) the three countries 
became nearly what they have since remained, and it 
became customary for the imperial crown, with Italy, 
to go to the king of the Germans. " 

2. Beginning of the French Monarch v^. — At 
the death of Karl the Fat the French nobles elected 



PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 49 

Count Odo of Paris, who became King of France, 888. 
He iiad to fight the Northmen who continued their 
invasions, (settled under Rolf (911) Normandy,) while 
the powerful nobles cared more for their own indepen- 
dence than for the nation's prosperity. At Odo's death 
he named Charles the Simple to succeed him. Odo's 
son, Robert, did homage to Charles ^' and received the 
duchy of France." (^'Isle of France.'' See map, p. 
487.) Robert's son, Hugo, Duke of Paris, might have 
become King, but declined. Hugo's son, Hugo Capet, 
was, upon the extinction of the Karling line, in 986, 
elected king of France. First of the Capetian dynasty. 

3. The French King Both a Sovereign and an 
Overlord, — As an overlord "he could deal directly 
only with the members of the feudal hierarchy." As a 
sovereign " he dealt directly with all the inhabitants of 
the kingdom." Hugh Capet was sovereign in the Isle 
of France and in Burgundy. He was overlord of the 
remainder of what is now France, and more. (Flanders, 
(where?) Poitou, Anjou, Poitiers, Gascony, and Aqui- 
taine.) The problem for the French monarchy was, 
therefore, to bring the great countries under the imme- 
diate sway of the King — extend the sovereignty. The 
history of France is really an account of this process of 
centralization. But how had these great counts become 
so nearly independent ? What was the counter process 
to that of centralization ? It was feudalism. 

4. What Was Feudalism ? — In a rude transitional 
age feudalism served instead of firmly established, well- 



50 PKESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 

regulated governments. The sort of imperfect govern- 
ment called Feudalism required two things, land and 
allegiance. The extensive conquests of the Teutons 
furnished the land ; the personal character of their law 
and organization — comitatus, (what?) made the tie of 
allegiance familiar. It was, therefore, among Teutonic 
peoples on Roman territory, as in France, that feudalism 
reached its most perfect development. Land at the dis- 
posal of the King. Distributed in large areas to his 
great lords on condition of furnishing troops for war — 
(allegiance.) Each lord might distribute his own area in 
the same way and so on indefinitely (subinfeudation). If 
now a weak King arises, the great lords disregard him 
and become practically independent. Precisely this had 
happened before Hugh Capet came to the throne, and it 
was a long (nearly three centuries) and difficult process 
to reduce these powerful hereditary lords again to 
submission. (Ch. XI.) 

5. The King's Sovereign Territories En- 
larged. — Henry I. (1031-1060) added Sens at the 
death of its feudal lord. Conflict with William, Duke 
of Normandy. That the Duke proved stronger than 
the King is the best commentary on the character of 
overlordship. Henry's successor, Philip I., added the 
Vexin (north) by its owners going into a monastery ; 
most of Vermandois by the death of its Count, and the 
city of Bourges (where?) by purchase. Then follow 
Aquitaine by marriage, Louis VII., (afterwards lost but 
recovered by Philip II.) ; Normandy, Anjou and Maine 



PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 51 

by force of arms from John of England by Philip II. ; 
Artois he obtained by his wife, Auvergne by war, Poitou 
by forfeiture from John, and Toulouse by marriage. 
Louis IX. acquired ^' Carcassonne, Beziers, Nisraes, and 
Macon in the south, and the counties of Perche, Blois, 
Chartres, Sancene in the north. '^ Philip III. (1270- 
1285), by the marriage of his son added Navarre, 
Champagne, and Brie. Henceforth the Capetians were 
Kings in fact as well as in name. Centralization had 
overcome feudalism. (Ch, VII. and XVIII. to p. 510. 
For the struggle between France and England, see 
Gardiner on the Hundred Years' War.) 



52 CHURCH AND STATE. 



PART IV.-CHURCH AND STATE. 



CHAPTER XVIII THE MOHAMMEDANS. 

1. The Eastern Question. — The so-called Eastern 
Question dates back at least to Marathon. There are 
three peninsulas in Southern Europe. The first great 
conflict between East and West took place in the most 
eastern peninsula — Marathon. The second, in the mid- 
dle peninsula — Hannibal's Campaign in Italy. The 
third, in the western peninsula — the Mohammedans — 
Tours. Since Mohammed's time the Eastern Question 
has had four phases. (1) Expansion of the East from 
Mohammed to the Crusades (632-1096.) (2) Reaction 
of the West— the Crusades (1096-1270.) (3) Moham- 
medans push into Europe from the East (1270-1683.) 
(4) Decline of Mohammedanism since 1683 — "The Sick 
Man of Europe." 

2. Mohammed's Early Life. — Of tribe of Koreish, 
keepers of Caaba, or temple of Mecca. Father, Abdallah, 
noted for beauty — when he married, two hundred maidens 
died of disappointment and jealousy (?) Mohammed 
born four years after the death of Justinian, Emperor of 
the East. Early deprived of father, grandfather, and 
mother. Poor. Camel driver to Cadijah, a rich widow. 
At age of twenty-five married Cadijah. Lived sober and 
virtuous life. At age of forty assumed title of Prophet 



CHURCH AND STATE. 53 

and proclaimed the religion of the Koran. Journeys 
into Syria brought him into contact with Jews, and gave 
him some knowledge of Hebrew Scriptures. 

3. The Hegira. — Mohammed's first disciple was his 
wife ; the next, a young cousin. Number grew slowly. 
Relatives remonstrated. Hostility in Mecca grew. His 
tribe denounced his family and refused to have inter- 
course with them till they delivered the person of 
Mohammed to the justice of the gods. Mohammed's 
death was resolved. Heads of tribes agreed that a 
sword from each tribe should be buried in his heart to 
divide the guilt of his blood and to baffle vengeance. 
Mohammed warned. At dead of night he and a faithful 
friend, Abubeker, fled from Mecca. Hid in a cave for 
three days, then went on to Medina. This flight, known 
as The Hegira, is the beginning of the calendar for the 
Mohammedans. 

4. The Koran. — Sacred book of the Mohammedans. 
'' A paper copy in a volume of silk and gems was brought 
down to the lowest heaven by the angel Gabriel ; '' he 
revealed it bit by bit to Mohammed. Written down on 
" palm leaves and shoulder blades of mutton." The 
pages were cast pell-mell into a chest which was put in V 
the care of one of Mohammed's wives. Two years after ^ \ 
the death of Mohammed the sacred volume was collected 

and published by Abubeker. " The faith which, under 
the name of Islam, he preached to his family and nation, 
is compounded of an eternal truth and a necessary fiction : 
That there is only one God, and that Mohammed is the 
apostle of God." (Gibbon, eh. L). 



54 CHURCH AND STATE. 

5. Spread of Mohammedanism. — After the Hegira, 
Mohammed preached at Medina. Was there received as 
a prophet. Made war od Mecca and captured the city. 
After Mohammed's death (632) his followers conquered 
Arabia ; Persia (637-650) ; took Jerusalem (637) ; 
invaded Egypt ; captured Alexandria and burned its 
great library. (Answer of Omar. Gibbon, Ch. LI.) 
Conquered Africa. Descended on Spain, 710 A. D. 
'' The Arabian empire extended from the confines of 
Tartary and India to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.'' 
Invaded France. They were finally checked by Karl 
Martel, and defeated " in the center of France between 
Tours and Poitiers." (Chap. XIV, 1.) 

6. Arab Learning and Universities. — The Fati- 
mites of Africa and the Ommiades of Spain were patrons 
of learning. Emulation among them diffused learning. 
The vizier of a Sultan founded the University at Bag- 
dad. Private citizens collected books. The royal library 
of the Fatimites contained 100,000 volumes, and that of 
the Ommiades contained 600,000 volumes. There were 
seventy public libraries in the Andalusian kingdom alone. 
Their libraries contained orators and poets, general and 
partial history, codes and commentaries of jurisprudence, 
theological works of all kinds, and four classes of science. 
(1) Philosophy. (2) Mathematics. (3) Astronomy. (4) 
Physics. They made great progress in medicine — in 
anatomy, botany, and Chemistry. The age of Arabian 
learning continued about five hundred years. They dis- 
dained the study of any foreign tongue, and were igno- 
rant of the Greek and Roman classics. They established 



CHURCH AND STATE. 55 

universities at Bagdad, Cairo, and Cordova. The intel- 
lectual life of ancient Greece carried to Asia by 
Alexander the Great thus returned in refreshing streams 
upon the barren wastes of the ^' Dark Ages.'^ Prepared 
the way for the Renaissance. 

7. The Crusades. 1096-1270.— The most remark- 
al)le events of the Middle Age. Under the growing 
influence of the church, pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulchre 
had become very luunerous. Strong desire of Christians 
to free Jerusalem from Mohammedan rule. Pope's 
influence gained by Peter the Hermit and for two hun- 
dred years Christian. Europe })oured itself in vast 
streams into Mohammedan Asia. 1. Led by Walter the 
Penniless, Godfrey of Bouillon, and Robert, son of 
William the Conqueror. Jerusalem taken — massacre — 
1099. Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. 11.1147-1149. 
Perished in Asia Minor. III. 1189-1192. Richard L 
Philip IL Acre (where?) captured. IV. 1202-1204. 
Led by Baldwin of Flanders for Pope Innocent. Directed 
against Egypt. Established Latin Empire at Constanti- 
nople, with Baldwin as Emperor. Children's Crusade 
(1212). Thousands of Children perished. Re-action. 
v., VI., and VII. came to nothing. Results: 1. 
Greatly increased the power and influence of the church. 
2. Strengthened Princes, weakened lords. 3. Developed 
commerce — Italian Republics. 4. Intellectual growth. 
5. Orders of Knighthood : Hospitalers, Templars, Teu- 
tonic. (See map, p. 344-5 ; Cox's The Crusades.) 



56 CHURCH AND STATE. 

CHAPTER XIX.— THE EMPIRE (GERMANY) 
AM> THE PAPACY (ITALY). 

1. Growth of Germany. — The Karling line 
became extinct in Germany in 911 (death of Ludwig, 
the cliild). Already the Germans had fallen into four 
great divisions. (1) Bavaria, (2) Swabia, (3) Franconia, 
(4) Saxony. These all united, however, to elect a king. 
Conrad of Franconia was chosen. (Conrad L, 911-918.) 
Conrad's problem was the same as that of Hugh Capet 
had been — to strengthen the monarchy at the expense of 
the great independent duchies. Conrad failed. Instead 
of cultiv^ating patiently the growth of the royal domains 
as the Capetians did (Chap. XVIII. , 5,) he insisted 
upon the complete submission of the great dukes at 
once. This roused the jealousy of the duchies before 
the monarch was able to use force, thus rendering future 
union difficult if not impossible. 

2. OrTO THE Great. 936-973. — The next chance 
for the union of Germany came to Otto the Great. His 
father, Henry the Fowler, had a long and prosperous 
reign during which many of the evil effects of Conrad's 
indiscretion were overcome. Henry had been judicious, 
advancing only such claims as he could enforce. Otto 
proved to be a powerful ruler, able to support far greater 
pretensions. After fourteen years of conflict he forced 
the dukes to submit, and it looked as if Germany was to 
become a nation. 

3. Decline of the Papacy. — Under Nicholas I. 
(868-867) the Papacy had reached its full maturity — 



CHURCH AND STATE. 57 

the vicar of God on earth with kings and emperors for 
subjects. Nicholas showed himself superior to local 
councils and synods, made himself the supreme power 
in Italy, and forced the Emperor, Lothar II., (KarPs 
great-grandson) to submit to his decisions. But in this 
complete victory of the Papacy lay its defeat. It failed 
to recognize that it must depend for supremacy on the 
variety and universality of its interests. It should have 
allied itself with the Empire and made Italy and local 
matters secondary. But in the arrogancy of its preten- 
sions it refused to recognize the Emperor except as a 
subject. (Cf. the silly pretensions of Conrad L, sec. 1.) 
The successor of Nicholas was friendly to the Empire, 
but tlie Roman church would hear of no such thing. 
The Papacy became local and rapidly sank to the lowest 
depths of moral degradation. 

4. Tkial of Pope Formosus. — Upon the death of 
Nicholas's successor, Formosus, " a pope rushed hastily 
into office, died in a fortnight. Another set up by 
Roman factions lent himself to the unheard-of scheme of 
putting the dead Formosus through the form of a trial. 
The corpse of the pope, already eight months in the 
grave, was dug up and dragged to St. Peter's before a 
synod of the Roman clergy. Dressed in full pontificals 
it was placed upon the papal throne and furnished with 
an advocate for its defense. The advocate of the new 
pope, Stephen, then called upon the dead to declare why 
he had dared to ascend the throne of St. Peter while still 
holding the office of Bishop of Pontus. The advocate of 



58 CHtTRCH AND STATE. 

Formosus made what feeble defense he dared, but the 
assembly representing the voice of God on earth, declared 
Formosus guilty and deposed him from office. The 
papal garments were torn from the corpse, the three 
fingers with which he had given divine blessing were 
chopped off, and the body dragged out of the church by 
the heels, and thrown into the Tiber.'^ 

5. Otto the Great Called to Italy. — Under 
such a papacy Italy^s condition was pitiable indeed. 
Neither the local king nor the pope was able to keep 
the peace, and in 951 Otto marched to Pavia and was 
crowned king of Italy. Before he could reach Rome he 
had to return home and spend ten years in repelling 
invasions and securing his authority in Germany. In 
the summer of 961, however, Otto is again in Italy. 
Mutual protestations of friendship. Otto admitted by 
the Pope to Rome to be crowned Emperor. But Otto 
charged his sword bearer : ^' While I am praying in St. 
Peter^s keep your sword close to my head. When once 
we reach Monte Mario again you shall have time to 
pray as much as you like.'^ It was not likely such a 
friendship would last. Soon the Pope displeased Otto 
and a war began. 

6. Otto's Prime Mistake. — The policy of the 
Empire should just now have been the reverse of the 
papal policy outlined above (Sec. 3). Otto should have 
remained in Germany till his own dominions were 
thoroughly welded. Then with a powerful and united 
Germany at his back an Emperor might have withstood 



CHURCH AND STATE. 59 

the Papacy. Otto forsook his real support, Germany, 
for an imaginary one, the Empire, and German unity 
was put off nearly a thousand years. (Chap. XXV, 6.) 



CHAPTER XX.— THE STRUGGLE FOR 
POL.ITICAL1 SUPREMACY. 

1. Peeparations for the Struggle. — ^'As we 
enter upon the history of the great conflict of the Middle 
Ages, the struggle between the religious and the secular 
powers for the mastery in European affairs, it becomes 
important above all things to get a clear idea of the con- 
ditions under which this conflict was begun." The 
immediate successors of Otto the Great (especially Otto 
III) continued his policy — neglected Germany for the 
Empire. Tlie Roman factions, at last worn out, asked 
Otto to name a Pope. First German to become pope 
(Bruno) as Gregory V. Empire and Papacy at peace. 
Within a few months Sylvester II. became pope and 
immediately pushed the claim to papal supremacy. 
Christianization of Hungary and the northeast. Otto 
III. wished to make Rome his capital, and imagined 
wild things about an empire that was never to be — 
because it must depend not upon the imagination but 
upon the sword. Otto's successor, Henry II. (1002- 
1024) of Bavaria saw that Germany was really to be 
controlled through the great bishoprics. These, there- 
fore, Henry determined to conciliate and control. 

2. "The Papal Platform.'^ — It was during the 
reign of Henry II. that the three points on which the 



60 CHURCH AND STATE. 

papacy made i ts great fight for political power came into vie w. 

(1) Celibacy of the parish clergy through all its orders. 

(2) Purity of election to ecclesiastical positions — simony 
forbidden. (3) Papal investiture — " the bishop should 
receive the right to perform the duties of his office from 
no layman whomsoever, but from the Pope alone." It 
was the third which was aimed directly at the Empire, 
and it was around this question of investiture that 
Church and State waged a devastating war for more than 
two hundred years. 

3. HiLDEBRAND, PoPE GREGORY VII. — Henry II. 
appointed bishops nevertheless, both in Germany and in 
Italy. But in making a strong national church he forgot 
that these men might in a final issue put Church before 
State. Henry's successors (Conrad II., 1024-1039, and 
Henry III, 1039-105')) pushed the same policy with 
success. The German episcopacy stood by the Empire, 
and Henry III. made himself practically independent of 
the Popes. Henry IV. was but an infant at his accession, 
and the Pope, Victor 11. was made his guardian. Victor 
was a German and did not use this opportunity to over- 
throw the Empire. Victor's death, with the Empire in 
the hands of a child, brought back the Roman factions 
and produced a Roman Pope, Stephen X. Soon died — 
poisoned. (?) Lateran Synod (1059) established college 
of bishops for election of Popes — constitution for an 
independent church. Fifteen years later Hildebrand 
caused himself to be hastily elected Pope as Gregory 
VII. (1073) without consulting the Emperor. 



CHUECH AND STATE. 61 

4. Henry IV and Gregory VII. — A rebellion of 
the Saxons allowed Gregory at once to begin open war- 
fare against Henry IV. Gregory allied himself with 
Henry's rebellious subjects, and in 1075 called a synod 
in which Lay Investiture (what?) was first prohibited. 
From the '^ Dictatus Papae '' " it is clear that the aim of 
Gregory's policy was nothing short of a complete subju- 
gation of every earthly power to the final arbitrament of 
Kome." Henry paid no attention to these pretensions 
of the Pope. The Pope remonstrated ; Henry invested 
bishops. The Pope excommunicated Henry's officers ; 
Henry retained them in his service. Then came mes- 
sengers to say to Henry that he must dismiss these 
officers and cease to invest bishops or he would be 
excommunicated. Immediately Germany was in a fever 
of excitement. National Council at Worms declared 
independence of the Pope and called on the Italians to 
do likewise. Henry was deposed and excommunicated. 
At first no attention was paid to either, but slowly the 
Pope gathered power. Agreement reached that Henry 
should be practically a prisoner at Speier, and unless he 
could free himself from the excommunication by the next 
February his people should be absolved from allegiance. 

5. Canossa. 1077. — Henry now saw that he must 
escape the excommunication at any cost. Journeyed in 
winter across the Alps. Outwitted the Pope who was 
hastening to Germany to turn his advantage to full 
account. " Gregory was fairly caught." He kept the 
king waiting three days, (Henry stood barefoot iu the 



62 CHURCH AND STATE. 

snow without the gate?), then restored him to favor. 
The Pope had gone too far, and for several years every- 
thing turned once more in favor of the Empire. Gregory 
exiled to Salerno where he died 1085. *' ^ I have loved 
justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile,' were 
the last words of the greatest man of his time, one of 
the greatest of all time." 

6. End of the Struggle. — Soon after Henry's 
son rebelled and the Pope became supreme. Henry IV 
died defeated. Concordat of Worms (1122). Com- 
promise (what?) Still the struggle dragged on. Ger- 
many falling into jealous, independent states. The Popes 
pursued their policy till the extinction of the Hoheustauffen 
House in 1254, when they became completely victorious 
and Germany was left without a ruler. The Great 
Interregnum. 



CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 63 



Part V. -CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL 
TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 



CHAPTER XXI.— THE NORTHMEN. 
THE CITIES. 

1. Who were the Northmen? — "The bold sea- 
rovers and pirates of Scandinavia and Denmark.'' As 
early as 787 the coast of England had been attacked by 
pirates from the continent. Alfred the Great finally 
beat these back and restricted them to the Danelaw. 
(Treaty of Chippenham, 878). After a century and a 
quarter of struggle, however, England was forced to 
yield and these hardy seamen ruled the country from 
1016 to 1042. 

2. Northmen in France. — The Northmen are said 
to have appeared in France as early as the time of Karl 
the Great. Karl wept when he saw one of their swift 
ships in the Seine, " because," said he, '' I foresee the 
misery they will bring my country.'' Charles the Sim- 
ple settled Hollo and his followers on the Lower Seine 
(911). Normandy. William the Conqueror. Four cen- 
turies of desolation for France ending with close of the 
Hundred Years' War, 1451. (Ch. IX.) 

5. Northmen in Italy and Elsewhere. — South- 
ern Italy was held partly by the Saracens and partly by 



64 CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 

the Eastern Emperor. In 1016 a band of Norman 
pilgrims was shipwrecked at Salerno (where?). They 
immediately began war on the Saracens. By 1081 they 
were secure in Italy and ready under their brave leader, 
Robert Guiscard, to attack the Eastern Empire. Robert 
would probably have overthrown the Eastern Empire 
had not Gregory VII. recalled him to help against 
Henry IV. (Chap. XX., 4). Kingdom of the Two 
Sicilies founded. The Northmen had also pushed east- 
ward through Russia as far as Novgorod. They had 
settled Iceland (874?), discovered America (1000), and, 
as we have seen, established themselves firmly in Eng- 
land, France, and Italy. (Chap. X. : also Wheaton's 
History of the Northmen ; Arts. " Normauds" and " Nor- 
mans,'' in Encyc. Brit.) 

4. Development of the Cities in the Twelfth 
Century. — As governments became more stable the 
peasant class gained rapidly in importance. Began to 
form communities, villages, cities, which could make 
better terms with the lord than could individuals. 
(Guilds. Find what these were.) Did medieval cities 
have an independent origin, or did they spring from 
Roman corporations? Probably both. Cities soon be- 
came centers of wealth. (Why ?) Kings and lords 
granted them liberties in return for money furnished. 
Free cities. 

5. The Hanseatic League, 1330 — Circa 1500. — 
At first a league of merchauts to protect trade when 
government was little more than the right to defend 



CHANGE FKOM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 65 

oneself against the Robber Barons. (Who were these?) 
Later a league of eighty-five or more cities of Germany 
and the Baltic for the control of commerce in their own 
interest. Conquest of Denmark — Treaty of Stralsund. 
From 1361 the League was a political power able to 
dictate to some neighboring states. Federal government. 
Assemblies met once a year, usually at Lubeck. Their 
Recesse (laws) have been preserved. During the 
fifteenth century the Hansa became gradually weaker 
through — (1) jealousy, (2) stronger governments — pro- 
tection no longer needed, (3) geographical discoveries, 
(4) loss of independence by the towns as feudal privileges 
disappeared. 

CHAPTER XXII.— THE RENAISSANCE AND 
THE UNIVERSITIES. 

1. What Was the Renaissance? — That revival 
of interest in the life and literature of ancient Greece 
and Rome which came to its full flower in the age of 
Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. It has no date, but is 
usually associated with the thirteenth and fourteenth 
centuries. It will be best understood by a glimpse of 
the men who led in the new learning. 

2. Dante Alighieri. — Born 1265, i. e., just about 
the end of the great struggle between the Empire and 
the Papacy, and the close of the Crusades. Forerunner 
of the Renaissance, but not himself a Humanist. (One 
who cultivated the " humanities,^' i. e., classical life and 
literature, as distinguished from the theological subjects 

3 



QQ CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 

which had been all the fashion.) Studied all the feraous 
poets, also Philosophy, Theology, Astrology, Arithmetic, 
Geometry, and History. Skilful draughtsman. Became 
embroiled with the political factions of Florence — the 
"Blacks" and the '' Whites." Dante banished the 
heads of both factions, but was afterwards himself 
condemned to pay 5,000 lire in three days or suffer con- 
fiscation of his property. He was soon after condemned 
to be burned. Escaped, and in his wanderings probably 
went to England and visited Oxford University. Last 
days spent in poverty. Died at Ravenna, 1321. 

3, Petrarch. Francesco Petr arc a. 1304-1374. 
— A leading Humanist, a lover of the New Learning. 
His father had been a notary in the Florentine Court 
but was expelled. Petrarch disliked law, his father's 
profession, but loved the works of the classical writers. 
His father was angered and threw his books of poetry 
and rhetoric into the fire, but relented on account of his 
son's entreaties in time to save a Virgil and a half- 
burned Cicero. (How were books made in those days? 
What was their value?) Left in poverty at his 
father's death. Took orders. Traveled and won fame 
as a poet. Honored by University of Paris — offered 
him the poet's laurel crown which, however, he accepted 
from King Robert of Naples. Declined papal secretary- 
ship and many other honors. A lover of learning and 
made it the fashion to love learning. Petrarch brought 
the men of his time into intelligent contact with antiquity. 
Was found dead in his library among his books. 



CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 67 

4. Boccaccio, Giovanni. 1313-1375. — Illegitimate 
son of a wealthy merchant. Wrote poetry at the age of 
seven. Hated commerce ; tried law, but preferred to 
write. First work of Boccaccio was a prose tale. His 
poetry severely criticized. The young queen Giovanna 
of Naples showed him favor, and it was to please her 
that he wrote the Decameron — a distinctly human work, 
strongly opposed to the theological mold in which pre- 
vious learning had been cast. Offered a chair in Flor- 
ence University to interpret Dante's Divina Commedia. 
Accepted. Died poor, leaving his books to his father 
confessor. 

5. Study and report these earlier lovers of learning : 
Gregory of Tours, historian of the Franks ; Karl the 
Great, Alcuin, Paulus. Diaconus (Paul the Deacon, the 
historian of the Lombards), Berengar of Tours, Anselm, 
Abelard (1079-1142), Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas 
Aquinas, Duns Scotus. Also topics like Karling Renais- 
sance, Transubstantiatiou, Predestination, Asceticism, 
Cluny, The Cluniac Reforms, Scholasticism, Nominal- 
ism, Realism, Mysticism, The Mendicant Scholars, St. 
Francis of Assissi, St. Dominic, the " Wandering 
Scholars." 

6. The University of Paris. — One of the oldest 
of the Universities, dating back perhaps to the eleventh 
century. The rise of universities in the Middle Age 
points to the emancipation of scholarship and teaching 
from monastic control. One expression of the Revival 
of Learning. The universities were at first no more 



68 CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 

than associations of teachers and learners — usually a 
great leader of thought (as William of Champeaux at 
Paris) with his followers gathered to his lectures. Usually 
in important centres. Frequent collisions between " town '' 
and " gown.'^ Among the early universities Paris came 
to stand for Theology, Bologna for Law, Salerno for 
Medicine (The ^' three learned professions " to this day). 
(Find origin and meaning of degrees A. B., A. M., Ph.D.) 



CHAPTER XXIII.— THE GREAT PROTEST- 
ANT REFORMATION. 

1. Wycliffe. (1320 (?)-1384.)— Perhaps the rela- 
tion (or distinction) between the Revival of Learning 
and the Reformation may be best understood by noticing 
that Wycliffe, the forerunner of the Reformation, was 
born almost in the very year in which Dante, the fore- 
runner of the Revival of Learning, died. The Renais- 
sance means the breaking away from the orthodox modes 
of thought; the Reformation, the breaking away from 
the orthodox modes of life and action. Wycliffe was an 
Oxford man ; one of the ablest preachers of his time. 
His first writing was political ; denied the right of the 
church to meddle in temporal affairs ; finally denied the 
right of the church to any temporal possessions what- 
ever. (See seven points of his creed, Encyc. Brit., Art. 
" Wycliffe.") Wycliffe made first complete English ver- 
sion of the Bible, and sent '* plain men " to preach the 
truth as found in it. Denied doctrine of transubstantia- 



CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 69 

tion ; tried for heresy ; supported by Oxford ; cited to 
Rome by Urban VI ; refused to go. Died in Leicester- 
shire. The Council of Constance (1415) ordered his re- 
mains to be dug up and burned. Order executed (1428.) 

3. John Huss. — A Bohemian. Born 1369. Learned 
and then taught the doctrines of Wycliffe. Pope issued 
a bull (1409) ordering the abjuration of all Wycliffite 
heresies and the surrender of all his books. Four hun- 
dred Wycliffe books burned in courtyard of palace of 
Archbishop of Prague. Henceforth Huss publicly 
defended Wycliffe. Excommunicated. Huss then de- 
nounced sale of " Indulgences.^' Sent for to attend 
Council of Constance (1418). Went under the solemn 
promise of the Emperor Sigismund that his life should 
be protected. Basely betrayed. Burned July 6th, 1415. 
^' He was the chief intermediary in handing on from 
Wycliffe to Luther the torch which kindled the 
Reformation. '' 

3. Erasmus Desiderius. (1466-1536). Born out 
of wedlock at Rotterdam. Cared for by his father, but 
both father and mother died young. Erasmus was a 
humanist, not a reformer, but his great learning and 
writings were in both time and form so perfectly suited 
to the needs of the Reformers that he is regarded 
as belonging to the Reformation. The Pope said : 
" Erasmus laid the egg, Luther hatched it." He was 
destined for a monastic life but loathed it. Made his 
way to Paris, afterward to Oxford, England. Always 
miserably poor. A prodigious worker. Most noted for 



70 CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 

a Greek version of the New TestameDt, with copious 
notes which the church found most hateful. ^* The 
purpose of his life was to fight the battle of sound 
learning and plain common sense against the powers of 
ignorance and superstition.'^ 

4. Martin Luther. (1483-1546). — Enough has 
been said to show that although Luther has come to be 
known as the Great Reformer; he was by no means the 
Reformation. Luther succeeded mainly because the 
return to the simple truths of the Bible as taught by 
Wycliffe and Huss had gained rapidly in force, and the 
Pope found himself unable to burn all who had the 
courage to stand for truth against churchism. Luther 
denied transubstantiation ; WyclifFe's decayed body had 
been dug from the ground and burned because Wycliffe 
had preached against transubstantiation. Luther revolted 
and nailed his "Theses'' to the door of Wittenburg 
Church because the open, shameless sale of indulgences 
to get money to build St. Peter's at Rome had insulted 
him ; Huss had been betrayed and burned because he 
had dared to raise his voice against the sale of indul- 
gences. Luther was warned, then excommunicated; but 
Germany had come to his side. Tried at the great Diet 
at Worms, Luther, like Huss, refused to recant ; but in 
Luther's case the treacherous effort to betray him in 
spite of the Emperor's safe conduct (what ?) failed. The 
Reformation had become a fact. Not Luther but Ger- 
many had revolted from " the Church." The effort of 
Spain to crush political liberty was defeated by England 



CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 71 

— Armada, 1588. (Creasy, Ch. X.) The effort of the 
church to crush religious liberty was doomed to utter 
defeat from the day that Luther's safety became assured, 
and was acknowledged by the Treaty of Westphalia, 1648. 

5. Calvin. 1509-1564. — A Frenchman by birth. 
Led the Reformation in France (where it failed practi- 
cally), and also (with Zwingle) in Switzerland (where it 
succeeded). Calvin differed with Luther on some 
doctrinal points and a meeting was arranged to adjust 
differences. Failed : Luther refused the proffered hand 
of friendship. The English church founded by Henry 
VIII. became Calvinistic through religious exiles who 
learned Calvin's doctrines in the Netherlands and carried 
them back to England. 



CHAPTER XXIV.— THE FRENCH REVOLU- 
TION. 1789. 

1. France Before the Revolution. — We left 
France at the end of the Hundred Years' War (1451) 
with her territory at last pretty well consolidated. With 
Louis XII. (1498) the House of Orleans came to the 
throne. This dynasty won back Calais, the last English 
possession in France. The Huguenot Wars (1 562-1 598), 
caused by cruel persecution. Civil wars continually 
through the reign of Henry III. House of Bourbon — 
Henry IV. King of IS"avarre, a Protestant. Life in 
danger till he became a Catholic. He issued Edict of 
Nantes (1598) giving Huguenots equal political rights 



72 CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 

with Catholics. His great minister was Sully. Then 
came Louis XIII., under whom the States General 
called for last time (1614) before the Revolution. 
Richelieu. Louis' sister became wife of Charles I, of 
England and gave her name to Maryland. Mary 
de'Medici. Louis XIV. (1643-1715). Five years old. 
France reduced to absolute dependence on the king. 
" L'etat, c'est moi." Mazarin. Colbert. Madame de 
Maintenon. Edict of Nantes revoked 1688. Huguenots 
flee to America. Louis XV. "The Well-beloved.^' 
"After us the Deluge." Louis XVI. became king of a 
starving people. The Revolution could be put off no 
longer. 

2. Outbreak of the Revolution. — Louis XVI. 
had neither the courag-e to reform the State nor the 
strength to rule it as it was. Maurepas, Turgot, Necker, 
and Calonne successively called to the task of reform. 
Failed. Assembly of Notables summoned (1787). Soon 
dissolved without effecting anything. As a last resort 
States General summoned for first time in 175 years, 
May 5, 1789. Vote by orders or by individuals? Tiers 
etat at last revolted, assumed title of National (Constituent) 
Assembly, June 17, 1789. Hall locked. Met in tennis 
court — President Bailly. " Oath of the Tennis Court " 
not to separate till they had made a constitution. Clergy 
and nobility join the commons. Rumors of dissolving 
the Assembly, dismissal of Necker, and concentration of 
troops around Paris, led to the Destruction of Bastile, 
July 14th, 1789. The Revolution had begun in earnest. 



CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 73 

3. Execution of Louis XVI., January 21, 1793. 
— The National Assembly continued its work of con- 
stitution-making in the midst of the worst disorders. 
Paris practically in the hands of a mob all the time. 
Hunger. March of the mob of women to Versailles. 
Insurrections in the districts. (What were the Assig- 
nats?) Constitution adopted on the anniversary of the 
destruction of the Bastile, 1790. Jacobin and other 
clubs organized. New constitution went into effect with 
the meeting of the Legislative Assembly, October 1, 1791. 
The Girondists. The Mountain. Prussia and Austria 
unite against the Revolutionists. Defeated. Tuilleries 
stormed. Massacre of the Swiss Guards. (Thorwald- 
sen's Lion, Lake Lucerne, Switzerland.) Jacobins in 
power. Jail deliv^ery. Danton Minister of Justice. 
National Convention composed entirely of Republicans, 
September 21, 1792. Monarchy abolished. Louis XVI. 
tried before this assembly and condemned ; sentenced to 
be beheaded. 

4. Reign of Terror. — Reaction. Committee of 
Public Safety (9 then 12), headed by Danton and Robe- 
spierre. Reign of Terror ended with the fall of 
Robespierre, July 27, 1794. Moderate Party in con- 
trol. By the Constitution of 1795, Paris established the 
Government of the Directory. (1) Executive directory of 
five persons. (2) Legislative, Council of Elders (250), 
and a Council of Five Hundred. 



74 CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 



CHAPTER XXV.— NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

1. The Italian Campaign. — Napoleon was born 
August 15, 1769, in Corsica. Family probably noble 
but very poor. Was sent to military school of Brienne, 
Paris. Led his comrades in mock battles and read 
Plutarch's Lives. At the age of twenty-six the Directory 
put him in command of the troops in Paris. Turned his 
cannon on the mob and reduced the city to order. Direc- 
tory sent three armies against Austria. Jourdan and 
Moreau on the north. Napoleon in Italy. Defeated the 
Austrians in a series of battles. Note Lodi : Siege of 
Mantua, and Areola. Took the Pope prisoner. Peace 
of Campo Formio, October 17, 1797. Austria lost the 
Belgian provinces, Ionian Islands, Cisalpine Republic. 

2. Napoleon, First Consul. 1799-1804. — Napo- 
leon's Egyptian Campaign (1798-1799) followed his 
brilliant achievements in Italy. Battle of the Pyramids: 
''Soldiers, forty centuries look down upon you." Failure 
of his attempt upon Akko. (Where ?) French fleet 
destroyed by Nelson at Aboukir (where ?) 1798. Novem- 
ber 9, 1799, the Council of Five Hundred overthrew the 
Directory and made Bonaparte, who had just arrived 
from Egypt without orders, First Consul for ten years. 
New constitution ; Senate of Eighty elected for life ; 
tribunate of One Hundred to discuss measures without 
voting; legislative chamber of Three Hundred with 
power only to accept or reject measures without debate. 
Executive in hands of First Consul with a council of 
State. Legislature had no initiative. 



CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 75 

3. Peace of Luneville. — February 9th, 1801. 
Napoleon offered peace ; refused by Austria, but Russia 
was won over. Napoleon in Italy, Moreau in Germany. 
Austria ground between the upper and nether mill stones. 
Massena defeated. Genoa taken by siege, passage of the 
Alps (Great St. Bernard Pass), Marengo (1800). Just 
before Marengo, Moreau had defeated the Austrians at 
Hohenlinden, and the next year, February 9, 1801, 
Peace of Luneville (where ?) Austria thoroughly humili- 
ated. Lost Tuscany, the left bank of the Rhine, and 
acknowledged the Batavian, Helvetian, Cisalpine, and 
Ligurian Republics. The next year the Peace of Amiens 
(where ?), March 27, 1802, with England. Napoleon then 
caused himself to be elected Consul for life. On the 18th 
May, 1804, he was proclaimed Emperor as Napoleon I. 

4. The Russian Campaign. — Soon England, Prussia, 
Austria and Russia united against Napoleon. Battle of 
Trafalgar (1805). Nelson : " England expects every 
man to do his duty.^' Austerlitz. Truce with Austria. 
Treaty of Presburg. Prussia humbled. Confederation 
of the Rhine (1806). End of the Holy Roman Empire 
by the abdication of Francis II., Emperor of Austria 
since 1804. War again with Prussia and Russia. Jena 
and Auerstadt (1806) ; Eylau and Friedland (1807). 
Peace of Tilsit — meeting of Alexander, Napoleon and 
Frederick William on a raft in the Niemen. Russia 
forced to consent to the dismemberment of Prussia. 
Duchy of Warsaw formed out of her eastern possessions, 
while she was compelled to cede all her territory between 
the Rhine and the Elbe. But peace could not be main- 



76 CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 

taiiied, and after Napoleon's failure in Spain backed by 
England — Wellington — and another defeat of Austria — 
Wagram (1809), followed by the peace of Vienna — an 
invasion of Russia was undertaken 1812. The march 
on Moscow — Borodino ; Moscow burned (by the Rus- 
sians ?). The retreat — Passage of the Berezina. 

5. Battle of Waterloo. — After the terrible failure 
of the campaign in Russia, Napoleon's enemies once 
more united against him.— War of Liberation (1813). 
A long series of battles culminating in the battle of 
Leipzig. {" Battle of the Nations,") October 16, 18, 19, 
1813. Napoleon totally defeated and his army nearly 
destroyed on the retreat — premature destruction of the 
bridge over the Elster. Allies cross the Rhine and enter 
Paris after hard fighting, March 31, 1814. Napoleon 
made a futile attempt to poison himself. Was sent to 
Elba. Soon escaped. The Hundred Days. Defeated 
at Waterloo, June 18, 1815, by Wellington and Blucher, 
and died at St. Helena (where?) 1821. 

6. Establishment of the German Empire, 
January 18, 1871. — Prussia rapidly recovered after 
Napoleon's fall — Confederation of the Rhine came to an 
end 1813 (sec. 4). German Confederation with Austria 
and Prussia as leaders 1815-1866. Six weeks' war 
thrust Austria out. Prussia formed the North German 
Confederation 1866. German unity finally achieved 
through the Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871. King 
of Prussia proclaimed at Versailles Emperor of the 
Germans as William I., January 18, 1871. The King 
of Prussia is always to be the Emperor. 



f 80 



• 'it 




.0* . 



* • 







>.^'^ 






# 






• • 



V* :i 



■ f 












^■\ 






i^v. 






^^ 










,0' 0«"** 



:^^^ 



,-^^ *• 



^0' 



4 ^. 



•o.o* 









1 

« 



O. ♦ • ,, * 



vO^ 



V •'I*-"* <:> 









» <» * ' «v 



1^ 



<! * ' 









^v^'l^: -0^^:;^ 



o > 



^-tjjn-^_^ 






*>. 



v^ . * • «, 









V"v' 



^fK. V> 






4*- " 












P 

» 



r 




:-^^ 









«_! * ♦ 




WERT 



.♦^•v. 



BOOKBINDING m^ ^ ''•"'^^^'•'%' -o; 

Grantville. Pa Bj ^ *o « » • . G " 

MA\ JUNE 1989 fl -y*^ A 

* ^, 4 



.^'".^ <^^ 



•o t- 





